The Recurring Nightmare of Hope
by Corpasite
Summary: Slight AU trek through the world of Survival Horror. Hope is what their worlds are built upon. Hope that things will get better. Hope that they will finally win the day. What happens when that hope is turned into a weapon against them? Can they save each other from the nightmares of their own Hope?
1. Zero: Same Old Song, Different Dance

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Zero: Same Old Song, With a Different Dance

Hello, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to read this story. It's my first true foray into writing something for the Resident Evil franchise that deals specifically with the canon heroes. With that in mind, this chapter needs to happen to set the stage for the rest of the story. Things are not like they are in the games, and I invite you to follow along with this timeline of events that has changed things for the heroes and heroines we have come to know and love….

After the events of Resident Evil 2:

Sherry is kidnapped by person or persons unknown. Leon is approached by the government, but declines their offer to work for them and vanishes, dead-set on finding the young girl.

After the events of Code: Veronica:

Claire returns to the United States with her brother, Chris. Once she is reunited with Leon, they decide to join a fledgling Anti-Umbrella group that was started by Chris, Jill, Barry, and Rebecca. This group is soon announced to the world as the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, under the control of a government-mandated liaison: Cranston Reed.

The events of Resident Evil 4:

Leon, not being a government agent, is not sent to rescue Ashely Graham. Jack Krauser, seasoned SOCOM Operative, is sent in under orders from the Government.

The events of Resident Evil: Revelations:

The Terragrigia Incident is seen as a successful biohazard prevention, since Clive O'Brian was not there to protest. The incineration of the island is heralded as a move made to preserve the life of those around them. Without the vendetta from Clive, the events onboard the Cruise Ships do not happen. The T-Abyss virus is still out there somewhere.

Our story starts 5 years after the events of Resident Evil 4. In the spring of 2009… The world is far different from the one you know. Barry has retired from the B.S.A.A., Sherry is still missing, and Leon, Claire, Chris, and Jill work tirelessly to remove the viruses and the B.O.W.s they create from the face of the Earth.


	2. One: Memories in the Wind

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter One: Memories in the Wind

Hope, the one thing you never want to have run out in a world where hope is as valuable as gold. The one thing you hold onto when you're afraid, sad, or angry. You expect it to save you, keep you warm on the cold nights of loneliness. What most people don't realize is that hope is the best weapon for your enemies to use against you if they have the upper-hand. Holding on to the hope of escaping a nightmare forces you to endure more than you should, allow your enemies to wound you more and more. In order to escape the pain, one has to let go of the only thing they have left: Hope.

 _How do I escape the recurring nightmare of my own hope?_ The body hanging from the ceiling by their wrists slowly awakens to that one thought.

The darkness has kept time from passing like it should, the person not really sure what day, night, week, or month it is. If they count the number of meals they have had as two a day, a total of nine days has passed, could be more, could definitely be less, the meals are meager and their ravenous hunger could be making the days seem shorter. The only sound in the room besides their own movements is the constant drip of sweat falling off the tips of their nose and toes. There comes a knock at the door behind them, like their captor needs permission to enter...

"Ah, how is my patient today?" the scraggly voice that always brings them food enters through the blinding light of the open doorway.

Something skinny and sharp slaps the exposed flesh of their back, causing a feminine scream to fill the room, "Oh good, you are still alive my dear Miss Redfield…."

 _Chris, Leon… Where are you guys?_ Claire closes her eyes as her day continues just as the rest of them had since she was captured.

 **Two Weeks Ago**

"Where are we going?" three hours of driving has removed any and all humor in Claire Redfield's body as she sits in the passenger seat of the SUV her partner is driving.

He keeps quiet, turning his face a bit to hide the smirk creeping over his lips as the steering wheel in his hands is turned to the right as the turn signal is clicked on to mimic his intention to navigate the car eastward. His brunette passenger grumbles again and slouches farther into the seat, arms crossed with a scowl of powerful boredom on her face. They survived Raccoon City together, he did everything within his power to rescue her at Rockfort Island, so she has to trust him at this point, but Leon just chuckles and slowly pulls the SUV into a parking spot in front of a rather small bar.

His green eyes reflect the lights of the rather dull drinking establishment outside his car as Claire slowly turns to look at it, "This place? Really, Kennedy?"

Another chuckle as she replies how he expected, "Just get out of the car, Redfield."

Both adults exit the vehicle in two completely different manners as Leon slowly steps out and closes the door while Claire almost rolls out of the car with an exasperated sigh. He places a hand on her shoulder and begins to guide her toward the entrance, but suddenly ducks into the alleyway, dragging her with him. Before Claire can protest, he wraps a hand around her mouth and brings up his pistol, face stern and serious. Both survivors slowly make their way through the alley as Claire watches Leon for any sign of what is happening.

 _Why did I not look around first? What did he spot that I missed!?_ her inner voice continues to lecture her as they approach the back door.

Leon places a hand on the doorknob and swings around to the other side, motioning for her to enter as soon as he opens the door. Claire takes a deep breath to wake herself up and pulls the slide back on her own handgun, finding peace in the sound of a round sliding into the chamber. The male half of their team locks eyes with her and slowly begins to nod his head before the numbers are mouthed to her, counting down from three.

Claire takes one more deep breath and raises his sidearm up, then slides into the open door, gun aimed for headshots as she stumbles into a dark kitchen, _God damn it, Leon! What is this shit!?_

Claire squats down to eliminate as much noise as possible as she slowly makes her way through the nearly pitch-black room. She finds the door separating the kitchen from the main bar and dining area as she makes a small whistle for Leon to follow her in. When both people are waiting at the door, Leon slowly presses it open, motioning for Claire to take point.

As the female brunette makes her way into the candle-lit bar, the lights flash on before a group of voices screams, "SURPRISE!"

"I'm going to kill all of you!"

11

Claire holds in a snort as a fit of laughter leaves her lips at the story Chris is telling, "Jill sandwich? He really said that?"

The man in question sits the beer bottle on the counter and runs a rough hand through grizzled gray hair, "Yeah… In a mansion full of monsters and terror, I couldn't think of anything else to say..."

Another round of laughter from the gathered survivors as the last of her coworkers leaves the well-used birthday party for Miss Redfield. As the survivors of Umbrella attacks sit solemnly at the bar and slowly play with their drinks, no one says anything, all eyes focused on the distance. The bar is occupied on one end by Jill and Chris, the other side by Barry and Leon, with Claire in the middle. Another hour goes by as each member of their group sighs once or twice, gets a refill on their drink, or gets up to stretch a bit.

"No Rebecca?" Claire mentions it just to cause some kind of sound to fill the room.

Jill yawns and looks back at the birthday girl, "She found a lead on Billy and is currently chasing down a mercenary group in Southern China. Come on, Chris, dance with me!"

Claire turns to the two as Chris tries to protest, laughing as Jill blackmails him into the dance, "Dance or I tell everyone about your underwear…."

"Not gonna work, Jill, we all know Chris wears American Flag boxers. Ever hear his nickname in the Air Force?" a giggle as the color fades from her brother's face.

Jill grabs his face and turns him toward her, "Dance with me, or I ask…"

As the two lovebirds twirl off around the bar floor, Claire returns to the drink resting before her. She twirls a finger through the pool of water from her quickly warming mix of vodka and cranberry juice and lime. Everyone seems to be enjoying her party more than the guest of honor. They've all been fighting bioterrorism for years by this point, but they still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. She doesn't even register the reduction in personal space as someone scoots a barstool closer to her. Their organization hasn't found any solid leads as to how there haven't been any real reduction in the amount of available bio-ware on the Black Market despite their victories in foreign countries. Someone is following in Umbrella's footsteps, but this mysterious entity seems to be better at covering their tracks than Umbrella ever was.

"I've seen dead bodies be livelier than you are right now…." Claire just huffs and sinks farther into the drink resting before her.

Leon places a hand on her arm and smirks, "What has you so down? Did I forget to give you your gift?"

Claire's blue eyes lower down to the box that is slid before her, her mind registering it as a present, but her body not moving to open it. Everyone else is trying to live a somewhat normal life, but Claire finds herself unable to remove herself from the nightmares of Raccoon City, Rockfort, and the loss of Steve. They've all seen a lot of death, but when one death is the result of your own inaction, it lingers around for a while.

Leon sighs and opens the mystery gift for her, the case opening up to reveal a necklace with an Umbrella-shaped charm, "Never forget."

Claire growls and stomps away from the piece of jewelry, "I couldn't if I tried, Leon!"

11

 _What did I say?_ Leon tries to chase after his partner, but a strong arm stops him, Chris's blue eyes showing no worry.

"You need to realize what she went through at Rockfort Island, Leon. She's not like the rest of us," his words ring true, but Leon still presses past the older Redfield and follows Claire outside, where she is sitting on top of the SUV that brought them here.

"Can I come up?" a hand is thrown over the side to wave him away.

After a bit, she huffs and replies, "What's the password?"

"Red-white-and-blue-field?" Leon smirks as a laugh filters over the top of the SUV.

Leon steps onto the rear bumper and rests his elbows on the top of the vehicle, his face looking at Claire as she stares at the sky, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Inflation, Kennedy, it's now a dollar for my thoughts."

A flash in Leon's eyes as he locks gazes with her blue eyes, "Thought nightmares were cheaper?"

Claire sighs and slides over, allowing room for Leon to climb up and sit down next to her. The two Raccoon City survivors spend a bit of time staring up at the clear night sky, not really talking, just enjoying the company of the other. No one else from the party inside bothers to come out to check on them, probably since they know why Claire reacted like she did. Leon sighs and thinks back on their time in Raccoon City, but the thought soon descends into a mass of blood, screams, and Leon finds himself shaking the thought away violently.

"Should I take it back?"

11

She can't believe that out of everything in the world, Leon thought she needs a reminder of why they fight bioweapons. Out of everyone else here, Leon is the one who constantly needs reminding. Claire keeps her mouth shut as Leon repeats his question, but she doesn't reply, not ready to reply. As Leon finally gives up and starts to roll away, she drops a hand on his chest to keep him near.

"Never forget the past, but keep looking toward the future, for hope."

Leon nods at her and smiles, squeezing her hand softly before rolling off the top of the car, "Happy birthday, Claire."

"You did good, Leon. Thanks for getting everyone together," Claire smiles and looks back up at the night sky as Leon walks back into the bar.

11

"Redfield, Kennedy, step in," the director of their Anti-BOW group ushers the duo to take seats in front of his desk.

As the female member of the team rests down into the slightly uncomfortable leather chair, he pulls up a folder and slides it over to them, "We have been getting reports from our spies within the black market of an Umbrella Bio-ware purchase made three days ago in Paris. Chris and Jill passed on this to continue tracking leads to Wesker, so this mission is all yours."

Leon thumbs through the file, handing photos and important pages to Claire, his lips moving to speak before Claire steals the words right from his mind, "Why are we being told of this after the sale has already been made?"

Director Reed Cranston sighs and places his chin on top of his intertwined fingers, "Our source is Jennings…"

"Does this mean he actually took his time and made sure it was Umbrella AND Bio-ware being sold?" Leon remembers the last time someone followed a lead from Jennings, the poor old lady was just buying a case of umbrellas for her school.

"He supplied us with a list of words he overheard being exchanged between the Market dealer and some friends. MA-121. Schematics for T-103 along with this…." a smaller picture is slid toward them, Claire's eyes locking with the image intently.

"Sherry!?" she has changed considerably from the little blonde girl they rescued in Raccoon City, but that is definitely the daughter of the creator of the G-Virus.

Director Cranston frowns and nods, "Apparently they are using her to peddle the G-Virus to interested parties."

"Does that mean….?" Leon can't bring himself to say it, but Claire is determined to get to the bottom of this.

"Does that mean we need to take down the buyer, seller, and rescue Sherry?" the color fades from her face as their boss shakes his head.

"Miss Birkin is not out concern at this time. We need to eliminate the bioweapons that were purchased and find the seller. If you happen to gather intel on Sherry while conducting your investigation, we can begin a file and search for her at a later date."

A fist slams onto the desk as Claire growls, "Sherry is a survivor! We need to rescue her!"

Leon reaches to grab Claire before the female Redfield does something stupid, but Director Cranston just leans back in his chair and replies, "You are ordered to complete the mission assigned to you. Do not deviate from this mission. If you attempt to rescue Miss Birkin at the risk of the mission, don't bother coming back to the states."

11

"That bastard!" Claire growls and paces around the room as Leon continues packing a bag with the essentials for their trip.

"Passports, enough cash for extra purchases, spare clothes for you and me, forgetting anything, dear?" he arches an eyebrow as he waits for her reaction to the comment.

None comes though as his partner continues her colorful rant about their boss's nighttime adventures, "Probably sits in dark alleys staring at whatever teen crosses his vision! Don't forget our ID kits. How dare he think he can put Sherry's life at risk when we've gotten the first clue in YEARS!"

The male in the room smiles and tosses the small boxes into their shared bag before he picks it up and turns to face the angry woman. Before Claire could start another tirade at the expense of their uninformed supervisor, Leon grabs her by the shoulders and spins her toward him, his eyes cutting into hers as she stammers to say something. There was once a moment when Leon wouldn't dare dream of thinking the thoughts he is, or preparing to say what he is going to. Of course that was before he got to know the larger and easy-to-anger Chris Redfield. Now though, things are different, and with a smile and a deep breath, Leon steps over the edge and takes the free-fall.

"You know you're actually cute when you are angry?" the blush that floods her cheeks almost makes him laugh.

Claire tries to turn away but he just holds her tighter, "It's an awesome trait to have…. I love it about you.. With anger like that, are you sure you're not a redhead?"

"I dye it," her confession is hidden in a soft voice as she slowly backs away from Leon's hold on her.

Leon watches as his partner busies herself with double-checking what he packed, her body shaking as she sighs heavily and dumps the contents out onto the table. The former cop leans against the wall as Claire begins to repack the bag, talking to herself about how bad men are at packing the essentials. A smile creeps across his face as his fellow Raccoon City survivor becomes a whirlwind of movement and sound as she replaces the crap he grabbed with better pieces and neatly sorts it all into the brown leather duffel bag they share for missions.

"Jesus, Leon, why did you pack toothpaste and soap? We can buy all that there if we need it!" the items are tossed back into the mini-bathroom of their shared office in the Anti-BOW compound they have been working at for six years now.

"Figured we could you know… Use it?" he keeps his voice low, hoping she didn't hear him.

Claire continues in her womanly rage to fix his mistakes, lost in her ways so Leon takes this time to head down to Chris's office, hopefully get a few words of encouragement to give to Claire regarding the Sherry situation. As the younger male of the group of Umbrella survivors makes his way to the office of the heroic Chris Redfield, someone else bumps into him, the two coffees they were holding spinning through the air effortlessly. One opens up and falls onto his head while the other bounces off his shoulder and empties itself onto Leon's shirt and pants.

"Son of a bitch that is hot!" Leon jumps up and attempts to clean some of the coffee off as he finally gets a good look at who bumped into him.

Jill Valentine frowns from her position on the floor and huffs, "You know the only way to make the coffee here bearable is to nuke it into submission, Leon.. Sorry about the spill…"

"Speaking of spills…. Could you do me a favor and talk to Claire? We got a bit of… Sensitive information and she's not taking it well… Might be nice for her to confide in a friend more than a partner right now…" Leon is uneasy about asking Jill to get involved, but they are a family here, and Claire will definitely open up more to Jill than Leon or Chris.

The brunette smiles and swipes a stray lock of hair from her face, "Yeah no problem. This have anything to do with that mission in France?"

"You always could read everyone like open books, Jill," he replies with a laugh and a wave as he makes his way to Chris's office, hoping the elder Redfield is still in as happy a mood as he was at Claire's party.

11

"What do you mean you lost track of them!? What the hell, DeChant!?" Chris tosses the nearest unbreakable item at the wall as Leon enters; apparently the mission Chris sent his team out on didn't go as planned.

There is an uneasy voice, followed by the hollow pops of automatic fire before Chris promptly sits down and calmly utters orders into the phone. Leon and Claire joined the Anti-BOW group Jill and Chris founded a little after Claire and Chris returned from Antarctica. Ever since they joined her brother in their combined mission to eradicate bio-weaponry from the world's black market, Chris has taken a back seat to being in the field and has instead focused all of his energy and resources to tracking down the last few remnants of Umbrella's leadership. The search for Spencer is going better than the quest for the elusive Albert Wesker.

Leon silently takes a seat in the chair opposite Chris's desk and nods at the elder male to let him know he'll keep quiet until the phone call is completed to success. Everyone sees Chris Redfield as this indomitable wall of will and resilience, but Leon has seen the side of Chris few get to: the exposed and vulnerable side. When Leon got the email from Claire about her being held on Rockfort Island, he got to see firsthand the wall come down as Chris took it hard at first. There was anger at first, accompanied by objects thrown at walls, windows, and other breakable barriers he found nearby. But after the initial rage and worry came the cold soldier people expect of Chris Redfield. That cold soldier left in a jet to find his sister and that cold soldier was what returned as he set foot in his office and rarely came out.

"Yeah, Leon? Sorry, had a team chasing down a lead on Wesker in the northern Ukraine," Chris leans back in his chair and props his feet up on the desk, lighting a cigarette as Leon leans forward.

"Claire and I just got a mission to take out a buyer of bio-weapons in Paris. Claire isn't taking it too well because there was a picture taken of Sherry Birkin at the sale," Leon's green eyes carefully watch Chris as he absorbs the information.

A long drag is taken of the cigarette in Chris's lips before he opens his mouth to reply, "You're worried that she'll get into trouble trying to chase down leads about Sherry, right? Neglecting the mission in order to correct a mistake she made. I feel for her, it's the same thing I did with Wesker when I found he was alive in Antarctica. I hate to say this, but there is only one thing you can do for her…"

"What's that?" the ex-cop leans back and stretches, looking to get this day over with and get a good night's rest.

A chuckle grabs his attention as Chris responds quickly, "You got to be Jill Valentine to her Chris Redfield… Be there for her to help her through it all and keep her mind on the mission at hand."

"Thanks for nothing….." Leon quickly stands up and exits the room, stopping for a second as Chris shouts back one more line.

"Jill has been my biggest supporter in my crusade against Wesker… Being a shoulder for support goes both ways, partner!"

 **END**


	3. Two: Chasing Dreams

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Two: Chasing Dreams

"We saved her, you know… We kept her as safe as we could, even risked our lives to cure the G-Virus in her blood. After we escaped Raccoon City, I had to find my brother, figure out where he went… Sherry cried for me to stay, Leon didn't take it well either but he understood why I had to leave… I left her in his care, trusting him to take care of her, positive that their nightmare was over…" Claire keeps her head in her hands as Jill sits down next to her, sitting a fresh cup of coffee down in front of her friend.

The two grew close once she joined the organization, seeing her as her own sister, but Jill doesn't really know where to start with this, "I honestly believe she doesn't hold you responsible for her situation…"

A sarcastic laugh fills the room as Claire punches the table, "Do you know how I felt when Leon knocked on my brother's door to tell me she was taken? I didn't worry for his safety, or her safety… I immediately hated myself for leaving her… If I had been there…."

Jill places a consoling hand on the female Redfield's back and replies, "It wouldn't have ended any differently… If they wanted Sherry, they were going to get her. Instead of a beaten-up Leon, we might've had two corpses to bury… You know, you should talk to Leon about this… I'm sure he feels responsible for her being taken. He probably beats himself up every night thinking you hate him for it."

Claire sighs and nods slowly, hating herself even more for making Leon feel terrible. How long has he carried the guilt of losing Sherry to the team that kidnapped her? Claire slinks farther into her own self-loathing as Jill stands up and straightens her outfit in preparation to leave. Sherry needs to be rescued, there are absolutely no doubts about that and that is what Claire will do.

A hand darts out to grasp Jill's arm before she leaves, "What would you do to make a mistake right?"

The gray eyes of Jill Valentine clash with the blue of Claire Redfield before a smirk crosses her lips, "Everything."

11

A crumpled dollar bill is tossed into the dry coffee cup in front of Claire, grabbing her attention as Leon enters the room, "What's this?"

"Inflation, remember, Redfield?" he takes a seat next to her and smiles as she unravels the note.

"I don't blame you, you know?" her voice is low as her eyes stare through the dollar he offered for her thoughts.

It's a nice thought, that he remembered her joke from her birthday, but Leon is just a walking nice thought, always has been. He tried so hard in Raccoon to keep a calm front up for her and Sherry, but she knew he was as terrified of what they were fighting as she was. He rubs his hands on his knees and takes a deep breath, which puts Claire on her guard for some reason.

A long silence before the breath is expelled, "Of course. The fact that you blame yourself is what kills me, Claire. You did what you felt was right. Finding Chris was more important for you. Keeping Sherry safe was my job after Raccoon City and I knew that. For a while I felt like it was all my fault, but then I saw the toll it was taking on you. We'll find her, Claire, don't worry. We'll chase down every lead we have until this is finished and she is in our care again."

"Why do you think they are using her to peddle the G-Virus on the Black Market?" Claire gasps as Leon's fingers clench tighter into the denim of his jeans, his eyes closed tightly as he remembers another nightmare from Raccoon City.

"I don't know, Claire… But we need to focus on the real mission at hand. There is a shady character out there with fresh documents and bio-ware that we need to apprehend. We can investigate the lead on Sherry while we are there, but Claire, our mission is that bio-ware deal."

Claire sighs and nods slowly, her mind finally registering again that there are things bigger than her own regrets and mistakes, "Do me a favor before we leave?"

"Sure?" Claire is apprehensive at what this favor might be, but smiles as the words leave his lips.

"Don't you dare dye your hair, red is a good color on you," and with that, Leon Kennedy heads home for the night.

11

 _How stupid can she be!?_ Leon speeds through the streets of downtown Tuscon on his way home, loud heavy metal blaring on the radio to keep him awake.

 _How could she even think I would blame her for what happened to Sherry?_ It was his fault, he should've taken her with him that day, and it was just simple errands, something to keep her mind busy. She wanted to go of course, both of them hated being alone, but he persuaded her to stay home, saying he wouldn't be gone long. A punch to the steering wheel almost sets off the airbag as Leon takes a sharp right into his neighborhood. Everyone at their Anti-BOW organization has demons they are fighting, which is why they need to rely on each other for support….

"Great," Leon steps out of the car and slams the door before hitting the lock button on his keyless entry, "I get to be Jill to her Chris…. Damn it…."

11

Chris lights another cigarette as Jill strolls into his office, her face trying hard to hide a smirk, "What's on that mind of yours, Jill?"

"It's kinda cute watching the two of them dance around their feelings… Think that's how we were after the Arklay Mission?" She sits down on top of his desk and crosses her legs, knocking his feet off the desk in the process.

"Maybe, think I should lay down some ground rules for dating my sister?" a large cloud of smoke circles into the air, startled slightly by the slow-spinning fan overhead.

The woman with the chocolate pony-tail chuckles and leans over toward her partner, "She's a grown woman, Chris… I think it might be a little late for that at this point…"

"Ah," the male Redfield stubs out the cigarette into an ashtray before locking eyes with Jill and smiling, "I can still smack Leon around if he hurts her, right?"

A heavy sigh from his female cohort makes his smile widen more as she replies, "Sometimes I wonder why I love you…"

11

A hand wipes the steam from the mirror in the small bathroom, a coy smile greeting the returning red roots to Claire's hair, "There you are…"

In Claire's college before she ventured to Raccoon City, there was a lot of stigma and hate pointed to redheads, as they were so rare anymore. To better hide and be who she needed to be, Claire decided going with the same shade of brown as her brother was a viable alternative to not being able to really set foot on the campus she was attending. During the Raccoon Incident though, with all the sweat and dunks in sewage, the brown washed out, revealing to Leon and Sherry that she was a natural redhead with brunette undertones.

"Why did I keep dying it after?" she knows the answer though as she asks the question to no one.

It was her attempt to regain some of the normalcy of her life before Umbrella stomped on it with a foot clad in the blood of everyone who they killed. She has to admit though, seeing the red again makes her feel better, like she can finally turn the page and start being the person she was meant to be: A Redfield.

 _Leon…_ Claire begins running her brush through her wet hair as her mind starts to wander from Sherry's whereabouts for the first time since she saw the photo.

After she left Sherry and Leon outside Raccoon City, Claire always wondered what he was up to, how Leon was doing, whether or not he was dealing with the stress better than she was able to. In their few emails and calls while she was chasing Chris down in Europe, he mentioned a few times the woman, _Traitor…_ Ada… She couldn't understand his attachment to her; they knew each other for even less time than she knew Leon for.

As Claire brings her towel up to start removing the rest of the water from her hair, her blue eyes focus on one of the scars above her collarbone, "Steve…"

When she shot out the spotlight on Rockfort Island and heard that voice scream out at her, Claire didn't expect to have found someone she could connect with so quickly. As they made their way through the prison and Claire learned more about Steve Burnside she began to see how it was possible for Leon to almost be in love with Ada Wong, even when she turned out to be a spy… As he died in her arms, Claire felt a part of her die and wondered if this is the weight that Leon always carried with him?

"Face facts, Claire… Even when you were falling for Steve, Leon was never far from your thoughts," she huffs at her own remark as the towel is tossed over the rail of the shower curtain.

Before long though, as Claire is now sliding into bed in fresh pajamas, her mind drifts to one of her great mistakes: leaving Sherry. The little girl was counting on her, saw Claire as a big sister, maybe even a surrogate mother, and she just left the little blonde child. As Claire slowly falls asleep to the sounds of her own sobs, her mind drifts to a single thought.

 _The three of us are bound by our love and betrayal…_

11

Chris jolts up with a start as a small file is dropped loudly to his desk, helped by a heavy hand from his partner, "What the hell is that?"

"All the files we have combined with Claire's notes on the G-Virus and its antigen," the brunette drops down into the chair opposite his and starts perusing the files contained within.

A gloved hand is run across the furrowed brow of the male in the room, who then yawns out his next question, "Why? What does this have to do with Wesker?"

"Nothing," Valentine never looks up from the file she picked up. "It has everything to do with your sister though."

A huff from her partner and lover brings a smile to Jill's lips as he gives in, like he always does, "Guess I can have DeChant take over the hunt for Wesker. He's earned a little more power over the team I assume… Where do we start?"

"Well we need to find out why Sherry is appearing at more and more Umbrella Bio-Ware deals. Claire said they cured her G-Virus infection, right?"

Chris quickly thumbs through the loose papers from his sister's stack and stops as he reads something about a devil, "Here, this might be… Oh my god…"

Jill reaches for the paper to read it herself, but his calm voice begins to spill forth words that weigh down her heart, "The duration of time for the process to run its course will vary from subject to subject. In the early stages of cellular invasion, it is possible to halt progression of the metamorphosis through administration of the G-Vaccine Antigen."

"Halt progression? So it's not really a cure?" her mood darkens more as Chris affirms her suspicions.

"They have found a way to use Sherry Birkin as a living petri-dish for G-Virus samples…"

Before Jill can ask a question, Chris drives a hard-thought nail home, "We can't tell Claire…. She already blames herself for Sherry's predicament enough… If we reveal this to her, she might fall apart during their mission…"

"Think it's about time you and I get back out in the field and kick over a few rocks to get to the truth?" Jill smiles as Chris clenches a fist in agitation.

11

" _Now boarding flight 7722 nonstop service to Paris._ "

Leon taps Claire's leg and slowly stands up, slinging his carry-on bag over his shoulder before leaning down to shake the sleeping woman he is about to fly to Paris with, _What I wouldn't give to be in Paris without a gun, mission, or goal…_

"Come on sleepy… The other dwarfs are waiting for us…." he smiles as she swats him away and groans.

"Okay, Dopey…." She chuckles as she hears Leon groan and help her up.

Nothing like a flight at one in the morning to really get the blood flowing as the team walks up to the airport worker and scans their tickets to gain entry to the plane. The woman smiles politely at the two of them before looking down at Leon's bag with a frown.

"I'm sorry sir, but new airline regulations state that any bag that can't fit in the overhead compartment must be checked at the gate and handed over to the loading crew to be stored under the plane."

Leon frowns and replies, "Ma'am, I have a lot of very sensitive documents in here… Personal files of my clients, medical histories, payment histories, stuff I would rather not have someone snooping through."

The smile on her face immediately vanishes, "I assure you sir, your privacy and those of your clients will be protected. The bag is too big and will need to be handed off to airport personnel to be loaded into the cargo bay."

Before Leon can explode on the woman and possibly get them in trouble, Claire steps up and replies, "I am so sorry for the aggravation, but we have a young woman in Paris with a medical condition that is very time sensitive… If we don't look over her files on the way to Paris, we might slip up somewhere in treatment and she will die. I don't know if you can live with that on your conscience, but we can't, not as doctors…"

A growl from the woman, a concerned look from the airport guard, that tingle of excitement before something drastic happens, then a smile is beamed at them, "Of course, doctors. My apologies and welcome aboard."

11

"Look! It fits perfectly!" Leon beams with pride as he sits down in his seat next to Claire, oblivious to the dirty glares from the other passengers who were held up by his five minute fight with the cramped compartment space.

"Tell me why we risked being arrested for that bag? You did just pack the essentials, right?" blue eyes cut into the Skymall magazine in her hands as Leon chuckles and pats the space above his head.

"Our files on the mission in Paris, cameras, encrypted phones, bugs of all sizes…" Claire doesn't exactly like the sound of that.

"And how did you get that through the X-ray scanner?" Claire sighs in defeat as Leon holds up a Press Badge he had the organization make before they packed up for the airport.

"Told them that my camera and film are sensitive to radiation of any kind. They did a quick physical examination and waved me through."

As the stewardess speaks over the paging system about the safety protocols of the plane, Claire just shakes her head and snaps back, "One of these days you are going to get us in trouble with those fake badges, Kennedy…"

"Enjoy the flight, heard our in-flight movie is the new Walking Dead movie."

"Seriously? Zombies? Ugh…." Claire presses a pillow into her face to squelch the scream.

"Could be worse," Leon opens a bag of peanuts he found in the pouch in the seat in front of him, "imagine a virus outbreak in an airport…"

A laugh from his partner, "Yeah, what would they do? Seal the place and keep everyone inside until someone takes a small team inside?"

"Probably be some stereotypical badass too with a cheesy one-liner," Leon shares in the laugh as the plane quickly begins to take off down the runway.

11

"No…. Why would they go to the CDC office? Common sense dictates that to be one of the first places you go for sanctuary…. Your first goal should be getting OUT of the city!" Leon has to duck as some of the other passengers toss pillows and other small items at him for another outburst about the movie.

Claire rolls over from the window and smiles at how angry he looks while watching the movie, "Stop getting angry… He's just trying to protect his family and do his job as a police officer.. You can relate right?"

"Oh yeah I can… Still though… He needs to accept that most of the county is probably infected by now…." Leon shakes his head as another zombie is killed by the Sherriff's large caliber weapon.

"Leon, instead of looking at the movie with the eyes of a man who has survived a few outbreaks… Watch it with eyes of the man I met in Raccoon City, the one who wanted to brave every danger to rescue any survivor he could find," she places a hand on his shoulder before rolling back toward the window.

"And keep quiet or I'll throw you out the emergency exit I am sleeping next to…" A laugh from her companion lulls Claire to sleep as the jet engines hum outside her window.

 **END**


	4. Three: Rabbit-Hole Logic

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Three: Rabbit-Hole Logic

"Next time, they will spring for first-class… My back feels like a pretzel…" Claire slowly walks with Leon through Charles De Gaulle International Airport in Paris.

"I think they have fresh pretzels over there…" Leon replies with what he believes to be the correct answer to her statement as his eyes scan the airport for threats of any kind.

Countless couples are being reunited just past the Security Checkpoint, parents anxiously await their children returning from a trip out of country, several groups of kids are apparently excited about taking in the sights of Paris and most of Europe, and then there is a strange man sitting on the bench stationed between the bathrooms on the eastern wall. Leon wraps his arm through Claire's, smiles at her, then watches as the man eyes the couple for a second before returning to his newspaper. The man's details are planted firmly in Leon's memory as the two make their way out of the airport and into the early Parisian morning light. All around them the city is alive with men and women on bikes with baskets on the front filled with bread and other groceries. Entertainers line the streets around them doing what they do best; with some painting, others doing mime skits, while some are just content with a gathered crowd listening intently to stories told with great fervor in French and other languages.

"I can't believe a place this breath-taking could be the site of a bio-weapons sale…" Claire continues to take in more of the imagery around her before something strikes the back of her neck.

"Leo-"

"You noticed him too? Just keep walking, will get a cab when we get to a main road," Leon guides them through the fast-moving crowd of people moving from the airport entrance, the dirty-blonde ex-cop doing his best to keep tabs on anything odd around them and working to keep them hidden amongst the crowd of tourists.

 _Who the hell could it be?_

11

Claire lets Leon guide her through the crowd, using his guidance to buy her time to focus on the person or persons following the couple. Whoever this person is, they are taking great care to remain hidden amongst the crowd, which is working against them it seems. At times like this it is better to locate the person who blends in too well; like a cop, a paper-boy, or a person handing out pamphlets or samples of food or drink. Out of the corner of her left eye she spots someone who is doing too good of a job moving through the sea of people, the camera hanging around their neck a little too large and expensive for someone wearing cheap off-brand sandals.

"Seven o'clock, typical tourist with a paparazzi camera," she whispers it into his ear before kissing it softly, trying to keep up an appearance that they are a couple on holiday in France.

She feels the goosebumps pop up on his neck as she pulls away, which peaks her curiosity, "Like it, do you?"

Leon clears his throat and ignores the question, which makes Claire smile as it is really hard to get under his skin, "We can lose him at the train station, quickly before traffic starts to move again…"

As Leon attempts to step into the cross-walk, Claire holds on tight and stops him from stepping in, "What are you doing?"

"Hold on a second…" the redhead keeps an eye on their follower as time ticks down before the light changes and cars fill their escape route.

She feels her partner becoming more agitated, but she keeps her calm, watching as traffic slowly begins to move. From the northern side of the road an impatient taxi driver starts to barrel through the intersection, which causes Claire to push Leon forward and they pass just in front of it and land safely on the other side as traffic begins to fill the crossing, with their pursuer on the other side of it, glaring at them behind tinted glasses.

Claire smiles at Leon who barely manages to wipe the shock from his face after their near-brush with a fast-moving yellow death machine, "You okay there, sport?"

A glare from the taller male incites a laugh from Claire as they make their way into the train station finally stalker-free for the time being, "Where are we going to now?"

Leon studies a map of stops and stations before replying, "We're meeting Jennings at Saint Lambert Square.." a finger points to the spot on the map, which is a little bit south of the Eiffel Tower, which makes Claire ache for some small part of the tourist experience.

11

The train ride would be pleasant if Claire's senses weren't forced into high-alert after their escape from the stalker, "We're passing the Eiffel Tower now, Claire."

A slow roll brings Claire's vision from the inside of the train car to the Eiffel Tower as it passes a good distance away. It's much taller than she expected, but almost seems surreal as the large tower of metal contrasts with the surrounding organics of stone and wood. A light flashes across the window of their car as the sun reflects off the pool of water in front of the Tower. Suddenly Claire's view of the Eiffel Tower shifts from the serene scene before her to a scene of death, destruction, and terror as bodies lie strewn around the ground while the moans of undead bounce through the steel girders overhead. Blood flows down the path like a river of life as someone falls from the top of the Eiffel Tower, their throat torn out by human teeth.

Claire's hand squeezes Leon's arm tightly as she forces her eyes closed to force the nightmare away, "Claire? What's wrong?"

Red hair flips around as the woman shakes her head furiously to detach the vision from her mind, "Claire!"

Frantic blue eyes lock with calm and worried green as Leon pulls her head up to look at him with both hands around her cheeks, "Talk to me!"

"It was like Raccoon City all over again… Blood, bodies, zombies, and the moans… Oh god, Leon, the moans!"

"Hey! It was just a nightmare… We've faced much worse since then and survived because we are prepared… Claire, Raccoon City won't happen again because we have already survived it… It'll just be another infected zone… We'll be fine, together…"

Claire's expression softens as the panic begins to subside and give way to her own grasp on reality, "Thanks, Kennedy…"

"No problem," he still has her face in his hands, but she lets it go, finding comfort in his caring touch.

He lets go soon after that and pulls out the small map of the train lines, noting that their stop is coming up soon, "Better get ready to hop off as soon as the train stops, we only have fifteen minutes to make it to the meeting with Jennings."

11

"Get him the hell out of here before I pull a favor to get him on the fucking black list!" the door to Cranston's office is slammed shut as Jill does her best to push her pissed off partner from the equally angry Director.

As Chris punches the water cooler with a punch that would surely destroy a zombie's head, Jill sighs and glares at him, "You PUNCHED HIM!?"

"Bastard deserved it… Did you hear him, Jill? He effectively called my little sister a non-essential asset to this organization!"

Jill runs a hand through her shoulder-length brown hair and slides her beret back on, "He said, and I quote here, 'If she deviates from the mission and pursues Sherry Birkin, we will have to declare her a rogue asset and take precautions'. And I am pretty sure that right as you drove your fist into his face he was going to order you to stay in the states."

"Good thing I didn't let him give that order…" the smile on Chris Redfield's face causes Jill to sigh in exasperation and throw her hands up in defeat as she follows him to their shared office.

"How do you do it?" she leans against the door frame as Chris begins to assemble the beginnings of a travel bag.

A shoulder holster is tossed on top of the pile as Chris opens a few of the books from the shelf behind his desk, "Do what?" the clips of ammunition hidden within are added to the pile.

Jill ignores the not standard-issue ammunition and answers his question, "Go from completely pissed off to a smartass in the span of three seconds? You were ready to kill the man in there and now you're acting like a kid about to go on a trip to their favorite place in the world…"

A short laugh from the man hidden in the closet before he reappears with a small metal case, "You think he'll try and stop me from going after my sister knowing what I just did to him for even considering it?"

"You went in there with every intent of hitting him!?" Jill somehow finds herself surprised by Chris every once in a while.

"If I didn't get the answer I wanted, yes. Most of the organization seems to think I have an attitude, so why not act on it? Legend is stronger than truth, Jill.."

11

Claire and Leon slowly approach the figure lounging on the bench at the park, a bag of popcorn being shared between them, _Are we still pretending to be a couple? Or is there more to this with Leon?_

Leon ushers her toward a table close to the bench but far enough away to not grab attention, "The moon is brightest during the day."

Claire holds in a laugh as Leon slowly turns toward Jennings, "What in the hell is that? A code phrase? Seriously? The only people to use those anymore are spooks that still follow the rule-book…"

The scrawny man blinks a few times in astonishment and turns around, draping his body over the back of the bench like a beggar would, "Here for the Deal, or the girl?"

Claire grits her teeth and clenches the bag of popped corn in her hands, "The… The…"

"Both," blue eyes stare at Leon in amazement at how he's going against orders.

"Take this on the girl," a small file, about the size of an index card, is flipped toward Claire as Leon is handed a bigger folder filled with documents and photos.

Claire's hands shake as they reach for the tiny collection of information on Sherry, but Leon swipes it up and stares at her before placing the larger file between them, "Sherry is attached to this file as well, if we focus on this first, we might have a better understanding of the contents of the other folder. The mission first, then Sherry, agreed?"

Her throat tightens from the weight of his words, her heart screaming no, but her mind forcing her to reply with a choked, "Yes.."

Claire hangs her head in defeat, watches Leon slide the smaller file on top of the larger one, and before he gets the chance to pay attention, she slides the smaller file off and into her back pocket, "Let's go, Claire, we can get a nice hotel room and study all this."

The two of them slowly make their way to the street where Leon hails a taxi, "Radisson Blu Metropolitan."

"Oui," the driver nods and slowly merges with traffic as they begin the drive to the hotel.

 _We'll catch the damn bioweapons at a later time….. We always do… Why is Sherry such a secondary target for everyone?_ Claire sighs and stares out the window absentmindedly as they pass a decent shopping district with people window-shopping.

11

Claire did not expect this, not in a million years, definitely not with the world in such secret turmoil and filled with dark events floating on the horizon. Her eyes glisten with wonder as they lock with a view of the Eiffel Tower framed in a picturesque circular window. Her brain doesn't want to register how they got the best room in the hotel, not with the fact that Leon is trying really hard to get things that Claire wants crossed off a list they talked about years ago.

"I still can't believe you remembered that this was the exact room in this hotel I wanted…." Claire slowly walks through the room, letting her fingers brush over everything as she takes it all in.

"Well if we are staying in Paris, there is no better place to be.. Plus, while on the hunt for the remaining Umbrella scum, we may as well get something nice out of it on the Organization's dollar…" Leon places their bags on the floor by the bed then sits down at the small table and begins to open the folder and rifle through the contents.

"Hand it over," Leon's voice is sharp and calm, hiding the agitation well as Claire turns from the window.

She smiles innocently and attempts to inquire as to what he wants her to hand over when she catches the look in his eyes, "Fine…"

Leon catches the file as it spins across the table and plants it firmly under his arm as he pulls up the first bit of information on the deal that went through a few days ago, "Looks like this buyer was more interested in BOWs than any of the viruses or research data. This looks more like a weapons deal than a black market trade to be honest…"

"How many of what?" the redhead spins her chair around and sits on it backwards, crossing her arms over the back of the chair and glancing over the files and photos as Leon starts spreading them out.

"Looks here like they wanted a small battalion of MA-121s… With the amount of data they requested on the T-103 my first guess would be they are going to use the Tyrants as a squad leader for small squads of the Hunters… If that is indeed the case, then why didn't the buyer also ask about the NE-Alpha parasite?" more questions are raised than answered as more of the information is absorbed by the duo.

Claire holds up a photo of the buyer, "What nationality is he? Spanish?"

"Looks to be… Hold on…." Leon pulls out his laptop and quickly begins searching the internet after hooking in to the hotel wifi.

"Yeah, a report from the DHS about the kidnapping of the president's daughter back in 2004 the Organization received… It talks about how Ashley Graham was returned to the States after a few weeks with a slight health problem that quickly turned into a major outbreak of some strange parasitic organism. The few details Homeland Security revealed seem to suggest that this parasite can control others, or that there might be two types, one master, other slave."

Claire's ears perk at the repeated mention of the word parasite, then snaps her fingers as a memory surfaces, "I think my brother handled the clean-up of that fiasco… Maybe he can give us some more details…"

Leon smiles as Claire picks up her phone and hits speed-dial two for her brother, "Chris? I need to a- You are WHAT!?"

11

"We've reopened our investigation of the G-virus and are currently heading to Paris to assist you two in locating Sherry Birkin," Chris replies slowly after Claire's rage-filled rant about how his mission to find Wesker is more important.

"Claire, Claire.. CLAIRE! Wesker can wait.. For all we know he could be the man in the shadows behind all this anyway. You have something weighing you down and it's my job as your brother to help fix that. Stop arguing with me. Sherry's situation is delicate and requires a level head. No you do not have a level head. Ugh, no it doesn't sound like you have a level head. Claire-bear, put Leon on the phone before I fly over there just to burn the god damn file," he hears Jill chuckle as Chris's left eye starts to twitch with the frustration only an irate Claire can give him.

"Yo," the voice is a lot calmer this time, which causes Chris to feel a bit of happiness.

"Finally a rational voice. What did Claire want?" Chris's demeanor changes as Leon spills forth the details of their finds in Paris.

"Parasite involved in the DC incident? If I remember right the kidnappers referred to it as Plaga. Yeah, the plague or some derivative of that I am sure. The analysis confirmed that there appeared to be a slave-master relationship inherent in the parasite. Theoretically, yes it could be adapted to BOWs, but that would require a lot of time, research, and money," Chris immediately feels stupid as the next question is relayed over the phone.

"You do realize it has been about five years since the President's daughter was returned to the States, right?" anger wells up inside the mind of the male Redfield.

A glare at Jill to relay the anger, "Yes, but it still demands research and money. The kidnappers didn't ask for ransom, which probably means they are loaded… Yes, Leon, if they made the parasite it also means they have the research… Okay, I'll get Jill on finding out who was involved in the attempted rescue."

"Oh, you're going to get me on that, huh?" Jill smirks coyly, turns from Chris, and walks out toward the offices where a computer awaits her touch.

"Just get what you can… See what your contact in Homeland can scrounge up, what was her name again, Hunnigan?" Chris drops into his desk chair and rubs his temples, aggravated at how this whole mission is becoming a departmental nightmare.

"How did the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance go from a BOW bloodhound to a globe-trotting police force?"

"The same reason you went from our best operative to a desk-wielding commander of a cell of BSAA agents in the Eastern half of the planet," Cranston Reed steps into Chris's office with a piece of paper in his hands bearing the BSAA letterhead.

"That is what exactly?" Chris is referring to both the response from Reed and the letter in his hand.

The letter is slapped down on his desk as Cranston sneers at him, "Times change, and we as human beings change with it."

Chris reads the starting line of the letter aloud, getting angrier as he reads more, "Chris Redfield is hereby ordered by the BSAA to remain at the home office until his recent actions can be investigated!? Is this because I cold-cocked you an hour ago, you son of a bitch!?"

"That will be determined after a thorough investigation of your recent activities both here at the BSAA and at home, Chris."

 _You slimy bastard!_ The letter is promptly torn to shreds and tossed at the empty doorway.

The farther they all look into the matter, the more holes that open up… Which hole will get them where they need to go, and which others will just make them spiral out of control? Chris grits his teeth and prepares to tumble down the rabbit hole opening before him.

 **END**


	5. Four: Daylight Recourse

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Four: Daylight Recourse

"Secure email from Jill just arrived," Leon clicks the icon and waits for Claire to slowly rise from the bed she was sleeping on.

"What did she find out?" Claire rubs the sleep from her eyes and yawns before making her way to the kitchen for a drink.

Leon's green eyes scan the email for anything really important, then settles on starting from the beginning, "Her contact states that a Jack Krauser was sent in to retrieve Ashley Graham three days after she was reported missing in Spain. From what I can tell his mission was going on point with regular updates filled with information he procured on site about an excavation revealing a plague that spread through the people making them 'believers'. His final transmission was about finding a castle and hiding out there with Ashley while awaiting rescue. Two days later the White House received word that she would be returned to them safe and sound, with absolutely no mention of Jack Krauser's fate."

Claire takes a long sip of the orange juice in her glass as her mind registers all the data, "What exactly happened upon her return to the States, Kennedy?"

Leon frowns and turns the laptop toward her, revealing a horrific sight, "What the hell is she pulling from her mouth!?"

The image is that of a gray-skinned Ashley Graham pinning down a member of the Secret Service while she pulls some…. Thing from her mouth and is prepared to shove it into the open mouth of the Secret Service Agent beneath her. Claire turns from it in disgust as Leon examines it closely, his mind picking out small details to retain for later use if necessary.

"That thing, according to the report from Ingrid Hunnigan we are blessed with reading, is a pupa of the Plaga parasite. It attaches itself to the spinal cord and controls the motor and cognitive functions of the brain. Person by person, room by room, the Plagas-infected hospital was overrun until Homeland Security could no longer contain the threat and requested the aid of the BSAA. Your brother and Jill were sent in and cleaned up the mess quickly, the casualties were heavy."

"Heavy?" Claire doesn't like the image in her mind that appears with that single word.

"Ashley Graham, daughter of Ex-President Joshua Graham, was the final infected taken out before the all-clear was sounded," Leon's voice is low and heavy, knowing that Chris himself carries the burden of carrying out the act.

The room is silent as Claire and Leon both stew in the new knowledge they gained from Jill's close friendship with Ingrid Hunnigan. They both knew when they joined the BSAA that they were good, but to be able to cover-up a bioterror incident in the Capitol like it did, that just proves the strength of the organization. To have another threat like Raccoon so close to home again frightens them both, especially with a threat they don't know much about. Claire taps her fingers on the table as she becomes lost in thought and worry while Leon rereads the whole story, still trying to make sense of it all.

"Could you imagine the horror of a BOW army controlled by T-103s?" Leon's voice is hushed as he quickly flips through the provided pictures.

Blue eyes close slowly as Claire replies, "I'd be more worried about the sick bastard giving orders to the Tyrants…."

Another awkward silence before Claire gasps as a small file is slid in front of her, "What?"

"We've got enough to go on with the bio-weapons sale… What's it got in it?" Leon smiles as Claire quickly opens the file, then frowns at how light the file really is.

"It's just a picture of her, with a date, time, and what looks like coordinates…"

A GPS is placed on top of the file as the man with the dirty-blonde hair states, "Let's go."

11

"So latitude is forty-nine degrees, two minutes, and just under half a second north. Latitude is two degrees, forty-four minutes, and forty-two seconds east. That's apparently just north-east of Paris! Come on, Kennedy!" Claire claps her hands and attempts to stand up, but the look on Leon's face removes her excitement.

"We can't act on that information yet, Claire… We need to check in with Reed and inform him of our recent acquisitions in information on the mission we were _assigned_ , Claire…" she notes how he said assigned, her face darkening at what he is implying.

"Fine," Claire stands up from the table and walks over to the window framing the Eiffel Tower, "let me know when you figured out where we need to start."

She listens as Leon struggles with the right words to say, finding herself happier when he gives up and makes his way into the bedroom, slamming the door with such force that the pictures hanging on either side of it slant. As the redhead settles into the bench parked by the window and lets her eyes wander over the gorgeous view, she feels her mind start to drift to what state of mind Sherry must be in at this point. The photo showed a teenager who looked well taken care of, but with a face that looks haunted, like she is carrying a horrible nightmare with her everywhere. What lies have her captors told her about Claire? How badly have they turned Sherry against the people who rescued her in Raccoon City?

 _Stop it, Claire… Regardless of what happens, you HAVE to rescue her again. Sherry needs to be free of her captors, allowed to be a normal girl… But is that even possible after Raccoon City?_ Claire lowers her head between her knees and lets the tears come, the same tear that have wracked her most nights since Leon delivered the blow all those years ago.

 _I have to do something…_ Claire's eyes gaze far off into the distance as she sighs heavily.

11

"Thanks, Hunnigan. Hmm? Oh yes, the file was more informative than we thought, even teaching Chris and I something new about Plaga. A favor? What do you need?" Jill scribbles down a note on the pad resting on her right thigh as her talk with Ingrid Hunnigan continues as Chris continues to try to reach any of his old Air Force buddies that aren't grounded.

"Hello? I'm looking for Grant Jackson. Sixteen years, huh? Smuggling? No, no need to take a message…" the phone is dropped into the cradle as Chris crosses another name off the list.

"Any luck with a flight under the radar?" Jill's brown eyes lock with Chris as he stares at the list in his hands.

"Three names left, and none of them look promising, Jill… I might actually be stuck here while you go play in Paris…." His reply is almost sad, regretful, but Jill knows better and chocks it up to his worry for his little sister.

A picture is placed in front of Chris, the last picture all of S.T.A.R.S. took before Rebecca joined them, "Hmm?"

"Well… You know there is one reliable pilot left… One who is no longer with the BSAA…"

Chris's blue eyes flash as he picks up the phone, then drops it, "You got a phone that probably isn't tapped by the BSAA or the TSA?"

Jill's burner phone from their last mission is dropped into her partner's waiting hands, "You are lucky I keep them if I don't use them…"

"You truly are too good for me…" Chris laughs at her reply as she walks out.

"I know, but don't worry; I love you too much to find someone better…"

11

Two teenaged girls run through the house arguing over some girlish nonsense as a large, grizzled man sits comfortably in front of a decent TV with a fresh cold beer in his grip. Whistles blow on the screen as the two teams fight it out for glory on the astro-turf. As he gets more into the game playing out before him, his mind doesn't register the phone ring, or his wife answering it. He actually doesn't register anything outside of the football game until his wife has shoved the phone into his face and blocks the view of the TV.

"BARRY! PHONE!"

He cringes away from the screaming voice and delicately takes the phone from his wife, "Okay, Kathy, I got ya…"

The device is raised to his ear and cradled in his neck as he cracks open the beer and divides his attention between the game and the voice on the phone, "Hello?"

"Long time, Barry…" the voice brings a smile to his face as he immediately forgets the game, but not the beer as he chugs half of it down while making his way outside to the patio.

"Chris! It's been what, two weeks since Claire's birthday? Not that long, even for an old bastard like me," the bottle is swirled around absentmindedly as Chris continues their conversation in earnest.

"Not about that, about me actually calling you about work-related issues…"

A chuckle from the older man, "Punch Reed again?"

"Why does everyone expect that!? Not the point, but yes I did. He grounded me to the BSAA headquarters while they investigate my mental stability… Claire and Leon are out in Paris dealing with a Black Market Bioweapons Deal that included the G-Virus. Jill and I have uncovered more information that adds a bit more danger to their investigation and I could REALLY use a discreet way to get me to Paris…"

Barry's brow creases in concentration as he speaks slowly, keeping his voice down so as not to raise the suspicions of his wife, "If you need a chopper pilot, I can pass for that… But you are looking for an international flight, one with the credentials to get someone on the no-fly list out of the country…"

"Barry…. Please… Jill has the legal connections; I have my Air Force Buddies… This one needs the old Burton charm… You still got to have connections with the NRA who have a shady past in weapons smuggling… What was that one guy's name? Vinvento?"

"Vin Viento. Best damn stunt pilot I ever met. Wait," Barry feels his blood boil as his mind registers what Chris is digging at.

"You want to fly the fucking plane yourself, don't you!?" the phone almost breaks as Barry screams into it.

There is a long silence, with a female laugh in the background before Chris clears his throat, "I need a plane and the paperwork to get me through screenings…"

Barry has dropped the beer onto the railing of the deck and slowly massages the bridge of his nose, not believing that Chris is pulling in THIS favor now, "Ugh… Give me a couple days to schedule it all…"

"Thanks, Barry, you're the best."

"Bit of advice, Chris?"

"Yeah, bud?"

"Next time they ground you, stay grounded… You get in more trouble this way…"

"Understood, but it's family Barry. Think about that."

As the phone disconnects and Barry is left in the moonlit backyard of his home in Canada, he sighs and shakes his head before chuckling to himself, "I need new friends…."

11

"Hey, Chica! Got a present for you!" something is tossed through a small opening in the door, barely illuminated enough by the dim lighting to locate.

Small hands reach for the item, delicate fingers finding the item to be some kind of paper or photo. The object is picked up and flipped over, gray eyes barely able to recognize the image as that of a person. The sound of chains rattling along the floor echo through the dark and empty room as the body inside slides over toward the beam of light filtering through the slit in the door.

As the image is brought into the light, a gasp fills the room before the image is dropped, a feminine voice screaming, "CLAIRE!?"

A thundering rap on the door startles the woman as a deep voice chimes in, "Yes, Miss Birkin… It seems the woman who abandoned you all those years ago is in Paris with us… This little detail has ramped up our time table and we will be leaving for friendlier territory soon."

Sherry Birkin stares down at the photo, tears staining her face as they fall freely, the sobs held back as she locks gazes with the frozen face of Claire Redfield, "Why are you here?"

11

Chris smiles at the email that appeared a few short minutes ago, the contents inside bringing his mood up considerably even as agents from the BSAA home office begin to tear his office apart. The little make-believe suits have almost torn through everything in sight, about to give up until one of them finds one of the books he hid ammunition in. The object is dropped onto the desk and Chris looks at it with false shock.

"You know what this is, Redfield?" the voice rings of someone who thinks they have power because they are wearing a suit, just the kind of monkey Chris can't stand.

With a sneer on his face and a spark in his eyes, Chris leans back and replies as the desk chair squeaks loudly in protest, "Looks like a bible you boys desecrated. I'm not usually one to spout church talk, but I believe that is a sin; desecrating the Word of God."

A growl from one of the other suits as the one questioning him takes a seat across from the desk, thumb and index finger furiously massaging the bridge of his nose, "Chris, this would go easier if you just answered the questions truthfully…"

"Hah," the bigger male unwraps a stick of gum and places it in his teeth as the fan slowly drums overhead. "Spare me the shtick. I already know you guys are gonna declare me unfit for travel. Maybe even go so far as to find me unfit for duty. Let me tell you something," Chris leans forward in his chair, hands clasping the desk as he edges closer to the Agent-In-Charge.

A gulp is heard before Chris continues, "I don't need a paper-pusher from the BSAA Home Office telling me what I can and can't do. You people haven't been through the shit I have… Hell, you twigs have barely lifted a finger to actually help us. I have to wade through political red-tape while dancing around Bio-Organic Weapons, know how hard that is?"

The three agents shake their heads, so Chris stands up, chuckling as all three quickly back away, "Take a look at this…"

His shirt is raised up, revealing a large scar along his rib cage, "I got this while battling an MA-121 class Hunter in Siberia. Know why I got the scar?"

One tries to speak up, but Chris glares at them to shut them up, "Because I wasn't allowed access to a wide-spread shotgun. While operating in the Political-Hotbed of Russia, I was reduced to using a semi-auto pistol with a ten-round clip. I was too busy RELOADING the damn gun to dodge the slash in time. Want me to show you more damage my body has taken because you people can't see the danger in what we do?"

The fire in his eyes makes the trio shake their heads and quickly pack up their stuff, "I.. I think we have enough for our decision, Mr. Redfield. We will be in touch with our verdict… Um… Enjoy the rest of your day.."

As the suits from the BSAA make their way out of his office a little quicker than they would have normally, Jill appears outside, then walks in once the doorway is clear, "Was that necessary?"

Chris blows a bubble in the gum and smacks it between his teeth, grinning wildly, "No, but fun…"

"Damn it, Chris!" there is real anger in her voice as his door is slammed shut, "You are going to screw this up! You have to focus and be a bit more of a damn team player here!"

Chris raises up his hands in surrender, the smile still plastered to his face, "Okay, sorry, Jill… What?"

His question is directed at the small smirk at the edge of her lips, "I can't believe they bought that story… I still remember the day you got it… I think you said, 'Hold my beer real quick, I got this.' Then jumped head first into the lake."

"How was I supposed to know some asshole dumped his old Christmas tree in the lake?" both share a laugh before Chris's phone rings.

The receiver is picked up and cradled in his neck as he motions for Jill to come closer, "BSAA Agent Chris Redfield."

"Chris," the voice on the other end belongs to Leon, but something is wrong.

There is a long pause as Chris tries to guess what might have happened, but he notices the lack of background noise, his skin immediately losing all color as he asks, "Where is my sister?"

 **END**


	6. Five: Intentions and Interpretations

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Five: Intentions and Interpretations

Jill quickly cleans up what remains of the phone after it was shattered by her partner, who remains silent in the corner of the room with a new phone against his ear. All the years these two have been together, Jill has never seen Chris this mad, not even when they found out Wesker is still alive. This mad of a Chris scares her, as he isn't saying anything, isn't doing anything, he is just sitting down on the floor listening intently as Leon explains what went wrong.

"You let her go by herself?" the voice is calm that scary kind of calm before stuff starts flying around the room.

Jill cringes as she hears Leon's reply over the phone, "She fucking slipped out while I was sleeping, DAMN IT! You think I would've let her go alone, KNOWING where she was going!?"

Chris's blue eyes shimmer with either held back rage or sorrow, Jill can't be sure which, "I'm getting on a plane tonight. Gather what you can about where she went and I'll meet you at the hotel in the morning. Where are you staying?"

The reply is quieter, so Jill leans over to read the name of the hotel Chris has scribbled into the floor of the office, "Fancy…"

Chris ignores her and closes the connection, tossing the phone back to Jill as he stands up, "Come on. We're leaving, now."

"What happened to Claire, Chris?"

The male stomps through the office in front of her, stopping only to grab the bags they packed two days before, "She went to investigate Sherry's whereabouts last night. She's not answering the phone they bought in Paris. Leon thinks the address they had was a trap and someone took her."

Jill places a hand over her mouth, "Oh god… So we're going to help right?"

It would be a dumb question if she didn't know Chris better as well as she does, and his answer proves her right, "No, we are going to find the son of a bitch who took her."

11

Leon hangs his head as the phone hangs limply in his hand, the device beeping before he drops it onto the cradle, "Claire…"

No time for self-loathing, no time to curse himself for not keeping a better eye on her, no time for anything other than focusing on finding Claire Redfield. According to the map on his laptop, the location they had on Sherry is about an hour away from here. Probably even shorter at night with less traffic, but still that only accounts for one hour of his now sixteen hour absence. The photo of Sherry is missing, signaling that Claire took it and the GPS to find the young girl.

"Damn it, Claire, why go by yourself?" Leon soon finds himself pacing the hotel room in agitation and worry, his mind unable to calm down and allow himself the rest he needs.

Leon desperately wants to go after her, but he knows it's borderline suicide. If he goes and gets captured or killed, how will Chris and Jill even know where to begin to search for Claire? A growl fills the air as the former cop finds himself stuck between what he wants and what he needs… Hopefully Chris and Jill can get her sooner than they did… Any time lost is another moment Claire could be killed.

"Her mistake has now become my mistake…"

11

"Ma'am, I don't have time to argue… I need to get on the next immediate flight to Paris, NOW," Chris has now turned a very disturbing shade of red as the woman at the counter types away on the computer.

"I'm sorry, _sir_. There are no openings on the next three flights. If you would like I could put you on the waiting list and see if there is an opening that becomes available," the gum in her mouth is smacked loudly just to irritate Chris some more.

Before Chris can become violent and put a serious hitch in their plan to get to Paris, the burner phone in his pocket begins to ring, "Chris, only one person knows that number…"

He glares at the attendant behind the counter before turning from the desk and placing the phone against his ear, "Barry?"

"See if you can get to private hangar three. I left a message with security to let you through."

Chris doesn't question it, this is Barry coming through for him with a plane to get them to Paris, which in incredibly good timing seeing how there is no way they were getting a commercial flight. The two make their way to the exit to the private hangar area, but are stopped by a rather large man in what almost resemble military combat fatigues.

"I'm afraid I can't let you pass, boss's orders," the voice is deep and the remnants of a foreign accent linger on the words.

"Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. Barry said he sent word to let us through," Chris gazes past the man but growls as a hand is placed against his chest, preventing further movement.

"I know what has been said. My orders still remain to let no one pass, not until the BSAA arrive," there is a gasp from Jill before Chris drives his knee into the solar plexus of the man before him and leans him against the wall.

"You'll be fine; I just knocked the wind out of you. You'll be down for a few minutes," Chris hands a bottle of water to the man before continuing. "Sip this slowly and when the agents from the BSAA arrive, make it sound like I did a real number on you. You'll be rewarded for your bravery.. Thanks, buddy."

A soft pat on the back before the two make their way out onto the tarmac of the private hangars, "Which hangar did he say we were going to?"

Chris squints his eyes as a bright light is flashed at them, "He didn't, but I am sure that is where he's at."

As the two BSAA Agents slowly make their way to the lighted hangar, a friendly voice calls out to them, "Yo!"

A smile creeps across Jill's lips as Barry waves at them from the entrance, looking around cautiously before pointing them toward the plane that is slowly beginning to taxi onto the runway. A quick increase in speed allows the two to catch up to the plane, where a man inside helps them in with a free hand. Chris takes a seat on the left side of the plane, while Jill sits in the seat next to him, both sighing in relief about finally getting on their way to Claire.

As Chris rummages through his bags and pulls out a small laptop, Jill takes the object from him, "Look, I know you are worried about your sister, Chris… But get some sleep; I know you have been up for the past two days with little to no sleep…"

He scoffs the suggestion away and snatches the device back; opening it to the file Leon sent them about what they learned of the Bio-Weapons purchase that went down in Paris. If everything that they have learned of in the past few years has really begun to form into one master plan to start a BOW war, the BSAA is definitely going to need better firepower and more knowledge of each and every virus and parasite out there. As Chris reads the information Leon sent over, his mind begins to picture how it all would go…

The interior of the airplane gives way to a large command center-like room where one man looks over a giant map of the world, or the current area in contest. He barks orders at a small group of men, each one with knowledge of the particular area their Tyrant is operating in. These men then relay the orders to the Tyrants they control through the NE-Alpha Parasite and various cybernetic implants. The interior then changes to a warzone with blood lining the streets and walls of numerous buildings ablaze in fire. Bodies, both human and Bio-Organic line the streets as a Tyrant slowly walks down the road, his eyes flashing as the orders received are then transmitted to the Hunters via the Plagas parasite.

"Open fire!" some soldier says off in the distance as the pops of mortar cannons fill the night sky.

Small explosions rock the territory as the green skin of the MA-121 Hunters scurry over rooftops and leap from alleyways and windows all around. The soldiers are quickly decimated by the thorough control of not only the Hunters, but the Tyrants as well, leaving no survivors, no safe haven, and no hope.

Chris shakes the image violently from his mind, the battlefield quickly turning back into the quiet interior of the plane making its way across the Pacific Ocean on the almost twelve-hour flight to Paris, "You okay, Chris?"

He looks over at Jill, who stopped her reading a report from Hunnigan on the research into the Plagas Parasite just in time to see the last vestiges of sweat fall from his face, "Yeah, just not liking where all this data is leading… Full-scale BOW Warfare controlled by a handful of people. It's just crazy, thinking that an apocalypse is this close to home and reality…"

A nod from his partner, "Agreed, but we know our first step in preventing this… If the kidnappers were using Sherry to trade the G-Virus for what the data for Hunters and Tyrants, then finding your sister and Sherry are our priority. The two have definitely overlapped now."

Chris sighs and tries hard to not focus on Claire, opting to pull a case from the bigger bag and place it down on Jill's lap, "What's this?"

"Figured you would need a lucky charm in this endeavor, Jill…" the case is opened to reveal a hefty handgun with a silver barrel and a dark wood accent on the grip.

"Is this…?" Jill is rendered speechless as she pulls her personal Samurai Edge custom of the 92F from her time in S.T.A.R.S. in Raccoon City.

"I couldn't bring myself to melt it down like you asked… Had a friend of Barry's give it a tune-up, you should find that it handles as well as it did in the mansion, if not better. If we somehow find that a scientist from Umbrella is behind this nightmare, it'll be justice to end it with that weapon," the barrel reflects in Chris's eyes as Jill examines the weapon thoroughly, her face not trying to hide the comfort this weapon gives her.

Chris smirks and replies, "The BSAA may have allowed us to take our fight internationally, with restrictions of course… But S.T.A.R.S. knows how to handle biohazard outbreaks."

Jill nods and slides the weapon back into the case before resting the container between the two of them on the floor, "So, you gonna do it?"

"What?" Chris continues reading the report.

"Punch Leon for losing your sister?" a laugh from her male partner as the plane drums on across the ocean.

11

There is a sudden burst of sound as Claire comes to, her eyes slowly opening due to both how long she must have been unconscious and from the pain in the back of her skull. Blue eyes slowly bring into focus the room around her, taking in every detail until she realizes where she is. Claire finds herself in the exact same room she walked into before being attacked, only this time she is bound to a chair that is bolted to the floor.

She fights the urge to say anything, not wanting to alert her captors to her being conscious, instead using this time to get any bit of information she can in case she finds herself able to contact Leon or, on a good side, get out of here, "No, I don't think she is awake yet."

The sudden voice startles her, but she remains quiet, her eyes locking with the small table off to one side behind her. With the chair firmly attached to the floor there is no way for her to reach it, but at some point she might be somewhat free, so a good idea to take notes while she can. A flash of brighter light fills the room as the door is opened and a squat man quickly walks in before the door is slammed shut and locked violently. He approaches her and pulls something from his breast pocket, the light from the end blinding as he begins a check of her vitals, using the light to test her vision for some kind of damage from the hit that knocked her out earlier. When he is satisfied with the results, the pseudo-doctor takes a seat in a chair not far from hers and pulls out a pad and a pencil.

"So," his accent is heavy Spanish, but he seems to speak English very clearly, "why are you here?"

Claire stares at the man, keeping her mouth shut, until something thin smacks across her face, the item appearing to be a telescopic pointer, "Answer me!"

"Sherry Birkin," Claire feels the whelp grow across her left cheek, "I'm here for Sherry Birkin."

A note is scribbled before the man speaks again, "Who are you?"

"Santa Claus," Claire smirks as she feels Leon's sarcasm in that reply.

Another sharp smack from the metal pointer, "Keep trying my patience and we'll move to less friendly items, _amiga_ …"

Claire spits the blood that creeps into her mouth to the floor before replying, "You people should already know… Only a handful of people know that Sherry exists…"

A laugh as the man claps his hands together in a pleased manner, "Excellent, you are everything they have told me and so much more, Miss Redfield…"

"Well, would only be polite to offer a girl your name… Normally I only accept foreplay after a drink, but I can," Claire winks at him, "make an exception in your case."

"Ah, not going to work, Claire. You aren't just a prisoner here…" the doctor stands up and tucks the notepad into a pocket in his jacket. "You are my prisoner. Enjoy your stay with us. We will be leaving soon."

As the man walks out of the room, Claire smirks and replies, "They know…"

Her smile dies as a slight chuckle rolls around her captor, "We know and we are prepared for them. Get some rest, Miss Redfield, we have a lot of work tomorrow…."

 _Christ, who are these people?_ Claire's eyes grasp a look at a marking on the doctor's arm, having a hard time distinguishing it as some kind of weird cross.

As the door is slammed and locked again, Claire begins using her left foot to draw her rendition of the cross on the floor. Once the cross is sufficiently scraped into the floor, the redhead then begins twisting her wrists against the rope and wire used to bind her to the chair, remembering a trick Leon once taught her.

" _Why in the hell would I want to cut myself!?"_ _Claire backs up aghast as Leon has used the rope and chair to cut his wrists slightly._

 _He huffs from the pain and then begins working the blood into the nooks and crannies of the knot around his arms, "Because the blood will work to lubricate your hands and make the rope swell. So you either get your wrists free, or the rope swells up enough where you can later on begin working to break the separated strands. Of course, this is only a solution if you were tied up when unconscious."_

 _Claire laughs and replies, "Yeah, if I'm awake, puff out my chest so the rope will be looser when I breathe out."_

 _She gasps as Leon is now standing before her, his wrists still bound, "Much like I just did… Know how to prevent that if YOU have to tie someone up?"_

" _Knock them out?" she smirks at the aggravated look on his face._

" _I deserved that… Next we will discuss the different types of knots to use in what situation and how to break out of each one."_

" _My, isn't someone full of useful information about tying someone up… Just what kind of games are you playing with my sister?" Chris smirks from the doorway as Claire blushes a bit._

Claire sighs at the memory and keeps working at freeing herself, _I need to locate a weapon…_

11

Leon keeps his feet steady as he leans against one of the walls just outside the security checkpoint in the airport, realizing that his nervous antics have raised suspicion from the airport security nearby. Their plane is due in at any minute, but any minute is a minute too long for Leon now. Claire has been missing for over a day now he feels it in his gut that the trail is growing cold, too cold to follow. Every second that passes pushes Leon closer and closer to the edge of not only his patience, but his sanity as well.

 _She might die thinking I was angry at her…_ Leon ejects the thought with enough force to make him light-headed.

Now is not the time to think about what could've been as letting his mind become distracted will only hinder his ability to participate in her rescue. There is a little commotion from a side door he marked as an exit point during his initial twenty minutes in the airport, but he ignores it until a familiar voice grasps his attention in a death-grip.

"Let me go you bastard! It was a private flight. What do you not understand about PRIVATE!?" Chris is screaming at one of the guards by the door they entered through from the private hangars.

"I am sorry, sir, but your flight wasn't on our flight schedule today. I need to see your papers and passport," the guard is making a terrible mistake by not backing down from the angry Redfield, but Leon knows he is just doing his job.

"Whoa whoa, easy there guys…" Leon walks up to the commotion, pulling his BSAA badge from his back pocket.

"I am Agent Leon Kennedy from the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, North-American Branch. These two are with me. Their flight wasn't recorded because the American Government has a deal with the French Government concerning our affairs. Sorry for the trouble, if you call this number," a card is flicked from his wallet, "I'm sure they can explain everything."

The guard looks confused and angry, but finally settles on confused and walks away saying something to his partner in French, "Glad to have you guys here…"

Leon expects a reply from the two but only receives a gasp from Jill as Chris throws a mighty punch at the younger BSAA Agent, "You son of a bitch!"

"I deserve that, I'm sure," the line of blood is swiped from his lip as Leon recoils from the hit, noting that both he and Chris probably share the same frantic and worried eyes.

Jill coughs to clear the air and then looks over at Leon, "So where are we going?"

"Well I figure we could g-" Chris glares at him, the look making him rethink his next few words, despite the fact that he has barely slept since Claire went missing.

"Ahem, we can rent a car and head out to her last known whereabouts…"

Chris relaxes a bit until Jill steps up, "That would be?"

"On the back of Sherry's photograph was a set of coordinates that registered as a house north-east of Paris, about an hour's drive. Something must have happened to her there," Leon keeps his gaze on Chris for any more violent outbursts as they make their approach across the way to a car rental shop.

 _If this mission doesn't kill me and we fail to find Claire, Chris is going to break me in half…_

 **END**


	7. Six: Chasing Remnants

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Six: Chasing Remnants

The drive through some of the more comforting environments of the French countryside was diluted by the constant verbal assaults from Chris, "Chris if I knew she was going to leave, I would have kept a better eye on her."

"I know that, Leon… This is my sister, I'm allowed to be a bit of a dick here," Jill snorts from the backseat.

"Just a bit of a dick, Chris? You've been biting his head off since he told you she was missing."

Chris scoffs at her remark, keeping his face forward as they enter the last half of their drive, his body performing muscle-memory checks of his own firearm without him thinking on the gun, "We have any information on who the buyers/kidnappers might be?"

The car curves around the slightly winding road as Leon turns the steering wheel, "My thought is it is the same group that infected Ashely Graham with the Plaga parasite. They probably used her as a test to see how well the Plagas worked at range."

"So," Jill types a note into the laptop, "we're dealing with Los Illuminados directly this time… Maybe we'll get some answers to what really happened in Spain."

"They won't be talking much when I'm done with them…" Chris clenches his fists tightly as he continues to stare out the windshield.

The car drones on down the country road as Leon comments to Jill about what they've encountered so far, even sharing a laugh at the fact Jennings wanted to use a code phrase. Chris's mind starts to drift off to remembering moments he's had with Claire, particularly the first time she mentioned she had a boyfriend. The road and trees before him change to reflect the home the two shared while she was in High School right before he left for the Air Force.

" _No, I won't allow it," Chris crosses his arms as a younger Claire glares at him from her perch on top of the kitchen table with her legs crossed._

 _Her blue eyes cut into him as she quickly retorts, "He's a nice guy! And with you going into the Air Force I might need a strong guy around to protect me…"_

" _Nice try, little sister," Chris crosses the kitchen and pulls a bottle of water from the fridge, "but we both know you aren't this sweet little girl. You are a Redfield and a redhead at that. You have a temper that even scares me, no one would ever mess with you."_

" _Then how about for company? If I don't have someone around while you're gone, I'll go insane," she's grasping at straws now, which makes him smile._

" _I'll make you a deal. Bring him by for dinner tonight, let me meet him… If things go well, he can stay in your life," she squeals in joy and wraps her arms around his neck, thanking him before running out the door to join her friends on their way to school._

As the memory fades and the fading sunlight of the Parisian evening fills his view, Chris sighs and glances over at Leon. She could do a lot worse he guesses, Leon can clearly handle himself, and the two have a lot in common. Chris can't think about that now, the last time he let his mind wander while on a mission, Wesker almost got the upper-hand on him. Chris sighs as the scene changes again, this time forming into the last room he remembered seeing Wesker in.

 _Chris pushes Claire behind him as he stares at Wesker, "You get out of here, Claire."_

" _But what about…" her eyes shift from her brother to Wesker._

" _As a surviving member of S.T.A.R.S. I have to finish this," his eyes never move from the imposing form of Wesker before him._

" _Just," she turns from him for a second before looking back and nodding, "remember your promise."_

 _Chris nods back and as Claire runs off to safety, Chris turns and locks gazes with Wesker again, "I'll end this once and for all… Say hello to all my comrades you killed!"_

 _The sunglasses that have been terrorizing them since the Arklay mansion are lowered to reveal sick and twisted eyes, "I don't know where you get your confidence, Chris…"_

 _As Wesker marches toward Chris, the younger backs up against a racking of pipes. One is raised up and smacks the blonde man across the face before it is swung around and then dropped heavily again, but it stops against Wesker's arm, the weapon bent from the strength of the hit._

Claire…. _Chris worries that he might not make it back before Wesker snatches the pipe from his hands and kicks him in the chest, knocking him back farther than should be humanly possible._

No, no longer can Chris afford to let his mind become unfocused, drift to any lingering thoughts. If he is to save his sister, Chris will need to be as cold and focused as he can while hunting down the bastards who took her. Nothing else matters at this point, nothing outside of rescuing his sister and putting an end to Los Illuminados. Chris barely registers that they have turned off the road and are parking until Jill taps him on the back of the head and motions for him to get out.

"Come on, we have to walk the rest of the way," Jill slides the Samurai Edge into her hip holster before loading a few more clips into the spare slots along the belt.

Leon checks his own VP70 before nodding at the two and slowly moving up the street toward the house Claire might be in, "Don't patronize me, Jill. I know what needs to be done."

Chris chambers a round into his 92F handgun before holding the weapon at a downward angle and slowly following suit behind them, not happy that he isn't taking point on this. Leon sweeps side-to-side for any signs of danger as they approach the driveway entrance to the location. Leon takes a quick look before swiftly moving to the other side of the driveway and aiming his gun as Jill moves into position where he once was.

 _Here we go, Redfield…_ Chris holds his weapon at the ready as he slowly counts to three, marking his movements in his mind before rounding the corner.

As Jill and Leon keep a sharp eye out, Chris moves into the driveway and quickly shuffles up the asphalt as the house comes into view. The windows are dark and the house appears silent, but Chris soldiers on to a side door, his fingers quickly touching the knob to test for any traps before he waves Leon and Jill up the driveway, his own firearm now aimed at the windows for any movement. Leon tries the knob, but finds it locked, which gives Jill her cue to pull out a small leather pouch.

"Master of unlocking," a chuckle from Chris as Leon quietly repeats one of Barry's greatest lines.

Jill ignores them and pulls out a tension tool and a pick, the two working in tandem to silently unlock the door. Chris turns the knob from the far side of the door and pushes it open as Jill and Leon step in, guns aimed for chest shots to allow them to capture anyone they come across. As the trio sweeps through the house, one of them grows more agitated as they quickly find more and more rooms empty.

Once they have cleared the entire house, the garage, and shed outside, Chris punches through the wall of the kitchen, "Son of a bitch we were too late!"

11

 _There has to be something here… Claire is too smart to not leave some kind of clue…_

Leon pulls out a flashlight from his belt and starts a search of the house for clues as Jill tries to comfort Chris. The first room he enters from the kitchen is a hallway with four doors; two on the left, one behind him, and one at the end. The first door is pushed open; this room being the bathroom, which he knows won't hold any clues. The next door is pushed open and reveals a small bedroom. Leon flashes the light along the floor before moving the beam of light over the furnishings, finding this room was probably where one of the kidnappers slept while the others kept watch. This room has been cleaned too well, leaving no trace of the men behind all this. The last door hides another hallway, this one traveling the length of the back of the house with one door at the far right side and two on the left side. The first door is a closet barely big enough to fit a vacuum let alone a full grown woman. The next door on the left is a room with several torn up holes in the floor with multiple scuff marks on the hardwood flooring.

"They had something bolted here," he remarks to no one as he runs a hand over the trails, noting something reflecting in the light.

Metal shavings, chains, someone was kept here. Judging by the number of scuff marks and the various directions they spread, this is possibly the room they kept Sherry in. Outside of the chain marks though, the room is fairly clean, which hints that Sherry was taken care of somewhat decently. Leon growls at the room before closing the door and moving across the hall to the last door, his hand shaking as it reaches to turn the knob.

They've already been through this room on their sweep, but actually looking at the room makes Leon's heart sink, "Oh god…"

There are random blood spatters that look as though they were attempted to be cleaned but they ran out of time. The same marks from Sherry's room are made in the floor at the middle of this one. The number suggests that it was a chair that Claire was bound too. There are a fair number of white fibers lining the floor, which makes Leon smile as he remembers when he taught Claire about knots and how to escape being tied up. His eyes turn to examine some of the blood marks on the furniture, the ex-cop's mind being put a little bit more at ease as the amount of blood signals a few beatings with little actual blood lost.

Leon sighs as he stands up in the room, his eyes still not quite registering what happened here, "Claire…."

11 **Seven Hours Ago** 11

"Hello again, Miss Redfield," the good doctor strolls back into the room as Claire hides the bloody knot in her hands.

Her eyes flash as her lips curl into a smile over bloodied teeth, "A check-up? So soon? You do have good bedside manner…"

A swift crack as the pointer is smacked across her face again, this time a laugh leaving her lips instead of a scream of pain, "What is this laughter?"

"Oh, just imagining what my brother is going to do to you if you keep ruining my face…"

"Yes, the infamous Chris Redfield. He was the one who ruined our plans in your Washington DC a few years ago," the doctor uses his jacket to clean the blood from the tip of the pointer as he circles her much like a vulture does a dying animal.

Claire feels his eyes examining her, taking in every detail, almost feeding on her. She can't help it when her skin crawls at the feeling of his leers as he places a hand on her shoulder, holding her down for no reason other than to reinforce his control over her. A sickly breath burns the back of her neck as he picks up her loose ponytail and laughs slowly. Claire hides a smirk as she imagines driving her knee hard between his legs the next time he is in front of her.

"I have a gift for you," Claire's ears perk as the sound of someone moving toward the room she is trapped in permeates the air.

Claire watches as the door opens, a figure emerges in the room shrouded by the bright light behind them, then a female voice makes her heart rise with excitement, then fall with dread as Sherry runs at her, "Claire!"

The girl's arms wrap around the redhead in a tight embrace as Claire notices the warm wetness of fresh tears as Sherry cries into her shoulder, "Sherry, I'm so sorry… I never should have left…"

Something odd is going on as Claire notices that Sherry's hands have lowered down her arms to the knot of rope and wire around her wrists, tiny fingers working to quickly untwist the wire. Sherry backs up from the embrace once the motion is complete, her face beaming with happiness as Claire holds back her own tears. There is movement behind her before Sherry is forced into another chair, the telescopic pointer tapping the floor between them.

"Sherry here has been most useful to us, donating her own blood to our cause as we trade the G-Virus within for our materials…" Claire hides the dread as she realizes this is the usual play: the bad guy giving away his plan as he intends to kill her soon enough.

Small movements are important as Claire works to slide the wet rope off her hands, knowing she needs to buy some time, "We cured that…"

A slender finger waves negatively in reply as the doctor leans down and smirks, "You made it dormant. G is incurable I'm afraid. With recent information we gained on Umbrella Bio-ware not seen on the Black Market, we found a way to reactivate it and have found a very lucrative way to fund our organization. Miss Birkin is a walking petri dish for one of the greatest viral threats on the planet."

Two fingers are free so the rest should be easy as Claire prepares to reply, but is cut off by the girl she was here to save, "There is no reason for her to be here… I've been participating well, haven't I? I've done everything you asked…"

"See, that's where you are wrong…" the doctor turns from Claire to address Sherry directly. "We want you to be more… Directly involved in the transactions… We found that the G-Virus we extract from your blood has a terrible shelf-life.. The fresher, the better…"

Claire watches as what color remains drains from Sherry's pale face, "Why would yo-"

The doctor crumples in a heap to the floor as Claire drops her interlocked hands across the base of his skull, "Keep talking."

Sherry awkwardly continues her question as Claire works quickly to undo the rope and wire around her legs, her body working automatically as her mind continues scanning the room for weapons and a quick escape. Aside from breaking something apart with too much noise, not much is useable to aid in their swift exit. Claire lifts the blonde teenager to her feet and silently moves toward the door, her ear pressed against it, listening for sounds of who might be there and how dangerous they might be.

"Doc has been in there longer than normal, we should check on him."

A deep voice replies next, the same one from when she awoke, the accent decidedly American with hints of some time spent in Spain, "I'll take care of it when I feel like it is necessary. You need to start cleaning up the house so we can change locations before they arrive."

Sherry is shaking against Claire, just like she did back in Raccoon, so Claire squeezes her hand tightly as they make their way over to the table in the middle of the room, "Here, hold this."

The table is flipped on end and Claire pulls Sherry down behind it, bloody fingers reaching around it to pick up the pointer of torture from the unconscious body of the doctor, "Fine, I'll check on it just to shut you up."

There is a near silent gasp from the blonde woman as the door is flung open, a loud growl filling the room as Claire is sure he has spotted the knocked out doctor on the floor, "There is no escape from here. Give it up, Claire."

Blue eyes peer over the top of the table to get a better look at the man and at first glance, she really wishes she didn't. Everything about his attire screams ex-military, his stance shows some serious training and the knife resting on his shoulder almost sings with the souls the blade has probably taken from this world. The man takes another step in, using a chuckle to hide the sound of his knife being drawn from the sheathe. A reflection of light from the blade illuminates the red beret on his head, Claire forcing herself to remember the emblem on the hat.

Quickly Claire breaks the pointer and uses the sharp edge to carve the design into the bottom of the table, circles it, then carves a line from it to the edge of the table, "Enough games!"

Hopefully Leon or Chris will find her clues, as the mysterious soldier drives the blade into the table and reaches over to lift both women into the air by their necks, "You two are becoming pests to the plan…"

Before Claire can remark, or Sherry can scream, the two are knocked together and rendered unconscious, _Find me, Leon…_

11

"Anything useful in… What the hell did they do in here!?" Chris promptly enters the room as Leon cascades much of it in light from his flashlight.

"This is where they held Claire," Leon runs a hand across the table as he spots scuff marks on the edge.

The older man growls and remarks, "Fancy table, not gonna help us find my sister!"

"Claire is a smart girl. She is a Redfield after all. She might have found a way to leave us some clues once she got free for however long she was free," the blonde male examines the table closer, stopping when he finds a unique mark on the edge of the top.

The mark drags under the tabletop so he flips it over; smiling wide at the image she left them to note one of the people involved, "What did they call most of the Air Force?"

"Derogatory or actual nicknames?" Chris has brandished his own flashlight and is examining another part of the room as Jill joins them, mouth agape in horror at the scene.

"Surprise me," Leon sketches the image into a pad of paper before slipping it into his back pocket.

"Entertaining derogatory name was Chairforce. I personally like 'zoomies'. Why?"

Leon points to the table and asks, "What you make of that, Zoomie…?"

Chris drops down and stares at the symbol, an eagle emblem with the rank of Lance Corporal, "A Lance Corporal in the United States Marines. Puts this guy in mid-forties by my estimate. Anything else?"

While Chris determined what the symbol meant, Leon found another marking settled around the uprooted bolts where Claire's chair was situated, "Yeah… A strange marking, looks like a cross of some kind…"

Jill and Chris both glance at the marking, Jill backing up as Chris clenches his fists, "I know that mark…."

Leon judges their reactions and finds himself not wanting the answer, "Who?"

"Los Illuminados…" Jill's voice is quiet, as though she is trying to remain hidden from some monster out in the shadows.

 **END**


	8. Seven: Advancing by Design

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Seven: Advancing by Design

"Besides blood samples that'll take us a lot longer to identify that we can afford right now, what else do we have to track these people down?" Chris overturns another piece of furniture in the house as Jill traces a finger over the weird cross in the flooring.

Leon growls from another room before an object is flung through the doorway and shatters against the wall, "Damn it all!"

"I think," Jill doesn't even glance in the ex-cop's direction, "he's taking this harder than you, Chris.."

It's true; Chris sees the Los Illuminados symbol as a good place to start, as he's dealt with their handiwork before. The older member of the BSAA team sighs and fights to not remember that moment in his life. With the threat already escalated as far as it was, Jill and Chris had no choice but to take out all infected threats. Unlike their dealings with Umbrella weapons, there aren't any real documents to study about this parasite, no way to find a cure, or if there even is one. Fingerless gloves squeak as he clenches his fists in anger, finding himself hoping that they don't intend to use Claire as one link in the Plaga chain of command.

"Chris?" Leon slowly walks into the room with something clenched tightly in his left hand.

"What, Leon?"

His hand opens up to reveal a patch of red leather, the image on it one that Chris knows all too well, "Claire's vest?"

Leon nods and replies, "Sherry was here. Looks like for a while too. What's our next move?"

Jill replies this time, allowing Chris to take the scrap of leather, "I have a contact in the US Government that has all the details of the incident with the president's daughter. Hopefully she can give us a location to start investigating."

Chris stands up quickly from his squatted position on the floor, knees cracking in protest, "In the mean time I suggest we get back to the hotel. We've been here longer than we should have been, someone may have called the police."

11

The car ride back is filled with the trading of information, Chris barely adding anything to the conversation that is mainly between Jill and Leon. His mind is completely elsewhere, leaving his body behind to start to rot as he thinks about everything he's fought against since the day he was told that Bravo Team was missing. So much death, so much loss, Chris still having a hard time dealing with it all even after all these years. Regret is what the Raccoon Police Department shrink called it, but Chris knows better. It's borderline self-loathing that plagues him nowadays. If he didn't accept the transfer to Alpha Team a few months after he joined S.T.A.R.S. he would've been with Bravo Team, might've helped save them, get them through it all.

 _Don't waste the time, Chris,_ no time left to focus on the past; the future is too important anymore.

Once he returned from Antarctica with Claire, Chris became too obsessed in hunting down Wesker, often dreaming of the day that particular chapter is closed for good. At first it never had a negative impact on his work, usually he used the rage to help him focus on the enemy before them. Soon though, mainly after the BSAA was formed around the team that helped out in Russia, Chris shifted more of his workload onto the other operatives, especially Leon and Claire, so that he could focus on his last demon: Albert Wesker.

"Chris?"

"I'm fine Jill," he waves a hand to assure her and dismiss her worry as he drops back into his pit of despair.

Chris and Jill were the BSAA representatives at a Global Conference on Bioterrorism in Washington D.C. soon after Ashley Graham was returned to the states. Right before they were set to speak on the dangers of not only the weapons, but also the people who use them, they got orders to assist the Secret Service and local police at the hospital following mention of monsters in the hospital. That was where Chris finally began to realize that there was a lot more wrong with the world than just his own personal vendetta against the final tie to Umbrella. As they made their way through the hospital the two collected as much data as they could concerning the main patient: Ashley Graham and what infected her. Chris soon found himself forced to gun down the president's daughter as she held a gun to Jill's head with one hand, and a parasite set to infect Jill in the other.

"Hey, Redfield," this voice is Leon's, and is a lot more attention-grabbing than Jill's worried tones.

Chris turns from the window and its fast-moving scenery, "What, Leon?"

"Jill asked you something, and it sounds important," Leon slowly turns the car back into the rental place they picked it up from.

Chris looks at Jill as they exit the car, her face showing the worry her voice hides, "You know it wasn't your fault, right?"

"Circumstances be damned, no matter what was going on, I still pulled the trigger, Jill."

11

Leon tosses his holster onto the chair he was sitting in a few hours earlier before dropping down onto the couch under the big window, having decided on the walk over to give Chris and Jill the bedroom with the two beds. His mind is still swimming with all the details of the day, body still pumping with adrenaline fueled by his worry for Claire. Nonetheless though, Leon Kennedy finds a moment to let out a big yawn, his lack of sleep since she went missing finally getting to the younger member of the BSAA. His membership with the BSAA was only conditional when Chris offered the spot to him; in case Chris didn't make it back from Antarctica. Once he returned and Leon saw the new fire in Claire's eyes, the decision to become a permanent member was a no-brainer for him and an even easier decision for Claire.

 _Hold on, Claire, we're coming for you…_ Leon holds up the two drawings he made of the clues Claire left for them at the house, his mind trying to figure out where they cross.

"Can't sleep either?" Chris drops down on the little recliner, which is even further dwarfed by his larger frame, and quickly turns on the TV with a heavy sigh.

"Not in the slightest," Leon is astonished to see what he thinks was only a few minutes has turned into an hour and a half since he sat down on the sofa.

As Chris continues to flick through the channels, looking for anything that sounds like English, Leon turns to look at his friend, "So any thoughts on what we might be up against?"

"Reports from Krauser that weren't completely redacted by the Government mentioned that the entire population of the area seemed to be under the influence of a large bruiser called Mendes. I think someone else was controlling him using Plaga. The little bug is quite versatile it seems when in the right hands…"

"Recent intelligence from your encounter with them?" Leon hates having to be specific with people he has known for a while.

A deep sigh as Chris visibly fights the desire to avoid the topic, "Until they go to attack it's almost impossible to tell who is infected. Once they attack, you will think you're fighting zombies again. Every so often if they lose sight of you for a bit, they'll start chanting or humming something. Some of them use weapons, others lunge for you, all of this depending on what they are currently holding at the time they deem you a threat. One of the Secret Service Agents put down his gun before he spotted me and then proceeded to attack me with his knife instead of the gun."

"So they still retain human qualities after infection? Any luck trying to rea-" Chris slams a fist down on the arm of the chair he is sitting in.

"They might not be zombies, but that parasite has still made them monsters. Once full control is exerted on the target, there is no saving them."

Leon is silent as he processes not only the information Chris has shared, but also how his friend is reacting to it all. Something dark happened in the hospital with Ashley Graham, something far beyond Chris having to kill her. For now though, he decides not to push the subject, as they both have more pressing matters to contend with. Three beers are placed onto the table, startling both men as Jill drops herself onto the left arm of the recliner Chris is sitting in, her eyes locked with the TV in a stare of obliviousness.

11

"Leon you need to get some rest," Jill sighs as the person she is addressing just shakes it off and opens one of the bottles.

"We should be doing something," if ever there was a final note to go out on, that would be it if Chris didn't laugh a little.

"Like what? We don't know where to go. The Government is being really stingy with the details of the failed rescue in Spain."

Dirty blonde hair is disturbed as Leon glares up quickly to the two agents sharing the chair, "Why not ask Joshua Graham about the note he received?"

Jill gasps as Chris stands up quickly, the motion knocking her off balance for a second, "There was no note! All they had to go on was the airport she arrived at in Spain and then a few witness statements of her hopping into a taxi and heading northwe-.. Oh my god.."

The brunette woman smirks at Leon before pulling out her phone and dialing a number, "I would like to book three tickets on the next flight to Spain please."

Chris nods approvingly at Leon before slipping a plastic card toward Jill, who smiles wide and says, "No ma'am, whatever is available, no preference."

As Leon watches on in amazement at how quick they work, Chris pulls out three small books and holds them up to Jill, who reads off the names one at a time, "Leon Scott. Jill-" a glare at Chris. "Jill Rueben. Chris Mitchells. Oh really? That's great, thank you!"

"It's been what, fifteen years since Arklay and I still can't live down Jill Sandwich?"

11

Claire wakes up with a start, working hard to ignore the quickly expanding pain in the back of her head as new sounds and smells rock her senses. Sounds first so her mind can settle and really identify the smells later. A dull drumming sound, most likely a motor, possibly several motors meaning she is in something large and moving. Through the numerous creaks and groans of the vessel she finds herself here, Claire can barely make out the sounds of crashing water.

"Great…" Claire hates large ships as they remind her of floating coffins, metal boxes you can't get out of once they start sinking.

"Claire?" Sherry's voice brings a new urgency to Claire's situation, the voice a decent bit off, meaning their captors have separated them to prevent the same fiasco from the house repeating itself here.

"Sherry," Claire identifies her bonds as thick wire cable, which she knows won't be easy to break or slip out of, "we'll be fine, don't worry."

There is a sound of scuffling before Claire finds the blindfold around her face removed, "What? I thought they would separate us better…"

Sherry smiles down at her and holds up her hands which are also bound in the same thick cable, "They didn't see the need for it. Even if we break free of the cable there's nowhere to go or hide… They have the entire ship well-staffed."

Claire does a quick study of their surroundings, finding they have been stashed in a large and empty storage room, "Who are these people, Sherry?"

"I'm not sure… I've been in their care for almost twelve years now and I don't think I've been off of this boat for more than a week… They never talk to me for more than a few minutes when they are extracting more of my blood… I thought we destroyed the G-Virus, Claire? Isn't that why you left me in that office in the lab!?" Sherry has dug her face against Claire's shoulder and is crying out.

"I thought so too, Sherry… I'm so sorry, if I didn't go after Chris… If I never left you and Leon…" Claire finds herself struggling to fight back the tears of her own regret and sorrow.

A sniffle as Sherry leans back to lock gazes, "You did what you needed to do. None of us could have expected someone to know about me and what happened to me in Raccoon City. Who all is looking for us?"

A smile as Claire thinks of the team tearing apart the French countryside looking for her, "Was in Paris with Leon tracking down a bio-weapons deal you were involved in… I'm pretty sure he dragged Chris and Jill into this… Don't worry, Sherry. I left a few clues as to who has us; hopefully they can piece it all together and get to us in time…"

Blonde hair swishes through the air as Sherry sits down next to Claire, her face swollen from all the crying she's done recently, "You know, I asked Leon to take me with him that day… He just smiled and told me that it would be safer in the house. That it was just a simple run to the bank and then the store… Know the last thing I remember about him?"

Claire shakes her head and pulls the younger woman against her, "The look on his face right before the kidnappers dropped the stock of a rifle across his head… It was fear, Claire… Not for himself of course, he was afraid of what would happen to me… If only I had pushed to go with him harder… It's my fault, Claire…"

"Hey. Imagine how I feel, Sherry…."

11

"Sir, we have confirmation that Redfield, Valentine, and Kennedy have all booked flights to Spain under assumed names. Call came from the same phone that we tracked here earlier," Cranston Reed takes the file from the lower peon and waves him off; disgusted with the fact this little ant disturbed his sanctuary.

All his work is slowly falling apart, all because of the infamous Chris Redfield mentality, "Cynthia, get me a direct line to President Benford. Now. I don't care what time it is in D.C. This is far more important."

The line is silent for approximately three minutes, Reed's impatience forcing him to count every second wasted during this time, "Do you have ANY idea what time it is, Reed!?"

"They're on the way to Spain as we speak," no time for pleasantries or the burning rant to shut up Adam Benford.

A light disturbance on the other end, like he is moving somewhere else, "Do they know where the group is located?"

"Bits and pieces, I've managed to keep the Graham Incident sealed as much as possible. What do we do about this?"

"Nothing. Even if they get the girl back and take out Los Illuminados, we have everything set up stateside to continue on," Adam's voice is hushed and rushed, the sounds of muted footfalls on carpet relay that the President is still moving through the White House.

Cranston opens a file and thumbs through the photos contained within, his ice blue eyes reflecting a name back at him, "Don't worry, Adam. We'll avenge your daughter's death. Chris Redfield will pay for what he did to her at the hospital."

11

"No."

"You have to…"

Jill crosses her arms and turns her head to the left, nose just barely pointed upward in disgust, "I absolutely refuse."

Leon yawns as the mini-argument drags him from the nap he fell into while waiting for their flight to start boarding, "What's the problem, kids? Do I need to change someone's diaper?"

Chris glares down at his fellow agent before holding a hand out to Jill, "I don't care what you do or don't like to eat. We're all tired, exhausted, and your stomach hasn't stopped growling since we passed that Thai place after handing the rental back in."

"We are tired, we are all hungry, but that isn't an excuse to eat _that_!" Jill's eyes lower down to the something Chris ordered from the Chinese stand in the airport.

"You know, I've never seen chicken that shape before," Leon pokes the food item with a chopstick.

Chris groans and turns back to Jill, "It's good! I eat it all the time."

"You also ate that cookie we found in your couch. You know, the couch you didn't know you had?"

Just then, Leon's stomach rumbles with the strength of a jet engine, his eyes lowering to the bowl of chicken something-Chinese, then raising to the two arguing people, down to the bowl, up to Chris. Two hands wrap around the bowl and it is brought to his side of the table, the chopsticks quickly taken up in the fingers of his right hand.

"Don't mind if I do!" a decent helping is clasped in the wooden instruments.

As the food is raised up towards his mouth, his eyes glean across the terminal to a rattrap and suddenly Leon remembers where he's seen the shape of the chicken before, "Or not…"

Jill and Chris continue their debate over if that food is fit for human consumption as Leon slowly wanders off in search of something not only is edible, but looks edible as well. Figures pass by or are passed by him as he makes his way back to the food court, his mind drifting away from his surroundings for a few fleeting seconds. His body walks on automatic as his mind throws all the details before him. Leon walks through his own drawing of the military patch and the Los Illuminados symbol, hears people reciting excerpts from the Ashley Graham incident in the hospital, and finally arrives at a place that strikes his fancy as a document comes into focus.

"What can I get you, sir?" the feminine voice has a heavy French accent, but Leon just stares at the menu, then bolts away and back toward his friends.

 _How the fuck could I miss that!? Damn it, Chris!_

 **END**


	9. Eight: Slow Sprint

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Eight: Slow Sprint

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Leon slams a fist down on the table, jarring the two from their conversation.

"About what, Leon?" Chris crosses his arms and meets Leon's pissed-off gaze with one of his own that is just as fierce.

Leon grits his teeth before replying, "There was a third BSAA Agent in the Hospital, wasn't there?"

"Reed was the Agent in Charge as Jill and I handled tactical inside. Why?" Jill's voice is quieter than the two men she is in company with.

Fingers clench and muscles tighten as Leon tries to find the words, to fit the pieces together, "The report states seven different types of ammunition were used in the assault. Four of them were ruled out as security, secret service, and first responders. One was a shotgun, one was nine millimeter handgun rounds, and the final was a forty caliber round."

"Get to the point, Kennedy," Leon can't believe this might be the actual reason Chris has such a bitter attitude about the incident.

"Why was Reed in the Hospital? What reason did he have to go into the hospital?" the next words from Chris Redfield's mouth shock the younger agent.

"Apparently he received word that Secretary of Defense Adam Benford's daughter was also inside. She was admitted earlier that morning with complications from her inhaler. He ordered us to continue our search for Patient Zero while he began a sweep for Risa," Chris's eyes flash with rage as he obviously fights with a bad memory.

"Did he shoot her?"

Chris remains silent, face contorting from the severity of the memory, "Chris, did he shoot Risa Benford?"

"We arrived in the East Wing and began our check, room-by-room for infected and survivors. All survivors were escorted to the main lobby to be examined and all infected were shot on sight since we had no information on the viral strain. It was around three seventeen when we approached room three-oh-five and announced our presence," Jill wraps an arm around Chris's waist as he finishes what she started.

"From behind the door we heard a female voice begging for her life. There was some kind of crunching sound, like bone tearing through skin before several gunshots were fired. This all took place as we were opening the door, but by the time we got a clear view of the situation Reed was reloading his handgun. There was nothing left of her face, like he shot her point blank, or she was running at him," Chris took a seat about halfway through, now slowly rolling a pencil back and forth on the table.

"Infected?" this is a lot more than he expected.

"Don't know. We never got to examine her and Reed sealed her file at the request of Adam Benford. Hell I doubt Adam knows who really shot his daughter… For all I know he blames me, Jill, the Secret Service…" Chris sighs heavily as a ping fills the terminal and a female voice calls out the boarding call for their flight.

"That's us, come on," Leon picks up the two carry-on bags they have and ushers his friends toward the loading tunnel.

Tickets are scanned, bags are place in overhead compartments, apologies are spread around as passengers cram into the plane, and Chris fights with Leon over who gets what seat, "Finally… How long is our flight?"

Jill sighs at her predicament, resting between two very large men, "The worst two hours of my life…."

11

"So, what all happened to you?" Claire struggles against a metal brace, trying to cut the cable holding her hands together.

Sherry draws circles on the floor as she sighs, "Woke up some time later in a helicopter. After a bit of a struggle I was then tied to a seat while one of them nursed an injury. Thrown into some dungeon-like room, complete with wall-shackles and stonework. They started out asking me about the G-Virus but when I gave them nothing more than that it was my father's creation and it killed him, they became angry, violent."

"What did they do to you?"

"Me? Nothing. They became violent at each other… Even after being with them all this time I've never seen them do that more than a couple times. You know," Sherry slaps a hand on the metal flooring as her eyes light up, "if I remember right, they only did it when I couldn't give them answer to their questions. It wasn't until that soldier appeared that they started to calm down and find some of the answers. That was when they started taking blood samples every couple hours. It started small, few drops here or there, and then a year ago they started taking vials of it every seven hours. Know what they said to me once they got their answer?"

Claire shakes her head as something causes their transport to rock back and forth, "They told me to thank you if I ever got to see you again. That if you didn't put my life before your own I would be dead, not kidnapped and helping to take the biological war to a bloody new level… They've tried hard over the past year to get me to turn on you, constantly reminding me that you left after Raccoon City, abandoned me."

"I did, in a way," Claire looks away from Sherry's piercing blue eyes as they quickly rise up to meet her.

"No, you didn't. I was relatively safe at that point… Your brother was still out there fighting more of those monsters, battling the shadows of nightmares. You did what you needed to do. Though," her voice is lowered as a small smile goes unnoticed, "they did get me to believe one thing…"

"That is?" Claire doesn't like the look of Sherry's face.

"Politicians are evil. The arguments they would have over trying to decide even the simplest of things were works of art," the two women share a small laugh before a loud knock at the door snatches their attention and their gazes.

"Time to talk, starting with why he hired us…" the doctor is back, but something is off about him.

Claire slides back to buy more time to examine the frail man, finding his skin pale, eyes bloodshot, blood crusted around his fingernails, "What happened to you?"

"We are believers and our faith is being tested… The master demands it…" Claire's blue eyes widen as something moves under his skin.

"Get away!" Sherry rolls along the floor, taking the doctor off his feet, something cracking from his form as Claire and Sherry make their way to a far corner of the room.

"What the hell is that, Sherry!?" Claire twists her wrists, trying to work the rest of the cable loose as Sherry keeps an eye on the still body.

"We're close… His hold is increasing over them… I'm sorry Claire, so sorry to drag you into this…"

11

"We don't really have any information to go on, you know," Leon turns in the passenger seat of the taxi and continues his talk with Jill and Chris in the back.

"Information comes from knowledge of who we're dealing with, information evolves and changes, Leon," Chris thumbs through more of the files they brought with them as Jill plays interviews and such through the laptop, headphones resting comfortably on her ears.

"I know that, Chris. I'm just saying, we have a location based off of data from nine years ago. This place might not even exist. What is the back-up plan?" Leon sighs at the feeling he has that Chris isn't acting rationally; finally deciding he will need to use Jill to get through to him at a later point.

"Our only other option is to go after Reed, see if he knows something we don't about President Benford's daughter. If we do that, we won't be allowed to leave headquarters. The only thing we can do is follow what we know. Any luck identifying that emblem, Jill?"

"Going off of the few military records we have access to I've gotten our options down to two squads of soldiers. Only a handful are still alive though, most have been killed overseas," she turns the laptop so Chris can see the names, one standing out among the rest.

"You don't think he could still be alive, do you?"

Leon leans back to take a peek at the list, "Who is it?"

"Jack Krauser," Chris's voice has a dark tone to it as everyone's thoughts immediately turn to the captured Redfield and where ever she might be.

11

"Glad to see you two are still alive, a fighting instinct like that will serve you well here…" it's the soldier from before, making his appearance known by clapping his hands slowly as his eyes rest on the dead body of the doctor.

Claire stands up slowly, her hands now free from the cable, her mind ready to act, and her body willing to carry out the actions, "Where is 'here'? What are you planning to do with us?"

"That's not quite my place to say, but rest assured you'll be well taken care of…" the laugh that follows as the large soldier walks out does absolutely nothing to put her at ease.

Sherry walks over from the far side of the room where she has procured a large pipe, "What are we going to do, Claire?"

"I'm working on that, you got anything else?" her eyes sparkle as Sherry also reveals a handful of bolts.

"I don't want to know what piece of machinery those came from… Follow me," Claire takes the pipe in her right hand and the bolts in her left before making her way to the door, which she finds barely open enough to see into the hallway outside.

It looks clear, but looks are always deceiving, so Claire takes one of the bolts and launches it at the hanging light just a bit down the hall. With a loud ping it bounces off the light and rolls around on the ground before coming to a stop in the middle of the floor. A few tense seconds pass by before shuffling footsteps sound off from the other end of the hall, causing Claire to press against the door in order to see who is going to check out her bait. At first all seems normal, albeit the guard might have a little seasickness or something, but that dies as soon as he reaches for the bolt and his sleeves ride up over his arms, revealing the gray skin underneath.

"Crap," Claire quickly rolls around the corner and pushes Sherry over to their usual sitting spot as the door is pushed open.

The man pulls the door open and peers in, his eyes coated in dried blood as something squirms underneath his skin around the jawbones. Those crimson orbs finally rest on the two women sitting down and he stares at them before groaning something and backing out of the room before slamming the door shut and turning the locking bar to seal the door shut. Claire scrambles after it, but her hands grasp onto a solidly locked door, their only chance at escape wasted in an epic fashion.

"Oh, Kennedy if only you could see me now…" Claire sighs and slides down the door, her head locked back and her gaze fixated on the light fixture.

A small laugh leaves her lips as a plan begins to form, "Claire?"

11

"I think I burned my last bridge with Hunnigan, but I finally got us some useful intel. The castle Krauser mentioned in his last transmission is located here…" Jill's left index finger taps a spot on the map.

"That's just water. There's no castle there," Leon points out the obvious, but misses the point again, as usual.

Chris smacks the back of Leon's head before answering, "The castle sank? What would cause it to do that?"

"Any number of things, a lot of the world seems to be prone to earthquakes, could be some kind of self-destruct mechanism since they are apparently handling biohazards. Could've been some kind of internal sabotage or Krauser actually attempting to complete his task, but we'll never know unless we check. Is that okay with you, Kennedy?"

Leon looks up at Jill before nodding slowly, a deadpan look on his face, "We have nothing else to go on at this point, so…. Yeah, I'm okay with that."

Before any new plans can be made, Leon's phone rings with a familiar ringtone to them all. As the device is raised to eye level, green eyes lower onto the name and instantly a rage so deep burns up into his body that he imagines throwing the phone out the window and shooting it to pieces. Instead though, Leon finds himself slowly lowering his finger down to the answer button, not quite sure what he is going to say to the voice on the other end or even if the voice will let him speak.

With a deep sigh, Leon pulls the phone to his ear and replies, "Reed."

"You are under direct orders from the BSAA to return here with Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine," Cranston's voice is a lot calmer than he expected, but Leon knows that the calmest people are always the most dangerous.

Negotiation training was a requirement at the academy for anyone getting on the fast track to Lieutenant, which was further amplified by the required training scenarios by the BSAA in dealing with people who are ready and willing to use biohazard materials. Leon remembers one cardinal rule of negotiating that they never teach you: Calm subjects are the hardest to negotiate with because they are impossible to read. What might seem like calm compliance might just be a silent acceptance that they are going to die and will do what they need to be okay with that decision. Cranston's calm reads of a deeper knowledge than he is letting on, like he is leading a chess game while being four moves ahead of his challenger.

Leon smiles as he realizes the only way to get what he needs from Cranston is to push a button or two, "Would love to, but someone seems to have placed red flags on our passports. So I think we'll just stay in Spain until we are ready to come home, thanks."

A deep dark growl flows from the phone, "Kennedy, you are disobeying a direct order from the head of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. You know what that means right?"

"A slap on the wrist and a reduced bed time?" Jill tries to hide a chuckle at that comment.

"I have already alerted the Spanish Government to the arrival of three unstable agents on a mission of revenge. They will be looking for you. I tried this the easy way, Leon…" the phone is cut off as Leon smirks and leans back in the passenger seat of the taxi.

"So, where to?" the cab driver speaks in a softly broken English as they approach the on ramp to a highway.

"We want to see the castle that sank," Jill drops a small wad of cash into the driver's lap before adding, "discreetly…"

"Understood," the taxi curves onto the highway and mingles with the other cars as the sun reaches the midday peak.

11

Cranston drops the phone down, takes a deep breath, and then pushes his desk over with a scream of rage, "Son of a bitch! They're going to ruin everything!"

As fists clench deep into the leather back of his desk chair, Cranston finds himself actually worried about this situation. He was originally against telling Claire and Leon about the picture of Sherry, but he knew then that they wouldn't have spent enough time there for Claire to be taken if they didn't have a reason to search beyond the bioweapon sale. Cranston had hoped that Chris would've been too involved with Wesker to go after Claire, finding himself unable to act after he finds out that she was taken by the same people responsible for him shooting Ashley Graham, but again, Reed has underestimated Chris Redfield's strength.

Ringing fills the air as Cranston dials a number on his personal cell phone, "Adam, we need to talk with our mutual friend…"

 _I can't believe it has come to this point so quick…_

11

"Tell me, why do you do this? Why fight against the natural order of the world?" the soldier circles Claire again, his knife gleaming in the light as she remains motionless while hanging from her wrists from the ceiling.

Blue eyes flash as she replies easily, "The natural order of the world doesn't need help from human hands, or the unnatural things they create."

"That's a rather bold statement to make, woman. You fight using unnatural weapons yourself, yet claim that the ways of others are crimes?" the blade is brought down between Claire's feet, holding her still before a hand is brought back and driven across her face hard.

Ever since Claire first had the idea for a potential escape she has been aching for a chance to implement it. Hours went by before he returned and started to carry out his torture to get what he wants from her, and finally, finally he has given her the tools she needs to get free. It took her trying every move in her repertoire to piss him off enough by moving from his punches, turning to avoid his kicks, to even bringing her feet up to his chest to stop a knife swing. Now though, Claire clasps her feet around the knife as his punch connects, the force knocking her back enough to free the blade from the floor and give her the momentum needed to bring the blade over his head and into the light fixture over his head.

 _Come on!_ the blade digs into the fixture and breaks the bulb, raining hot glass down onto her torturer.

While he is distracted for a little while, Claire swings back and then rockets forward, using her feet to bring the light down and expose the wiring inside. The cables fall onto the man and he screams in pain as sparks fly from his body and arc through the air. This second swing also snapped the rope holding her to the ceiling and she drops down to her feet a few steps past him, her eyes already scanning for Sherry.

"Come on, Sherry, let's go!" Claire releases the bonds from her feet and reaches for the pipe they acquired a few hours earlier, the two of them soon making their way through what she starts to immediately recognize as a large ship, possibly a container ship.

 _Exit… Where is the exit?_ Claire rounds one more corner, finding herself behind an unaware member of the crew.

She raises the pipe above her head and brings it down quickly, dropping him like a sack of potatoes to the metal flooring below, "One down!"

 **END**


	10. Nine: None Before Them

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Nine: None Before Them

It's funny how the silence can deafen you or the darkness can blind you, just like how doing nothing can make you tired. All three of the BSAA agents find themselves facing intense boredom now as their drive to the location of the castle supposedly owned by Los Illuminados drags on for the third hour, the tour slowed down as they were forced to take a scenic route through the mountains. Leon can't sleep, hasn't even attempted to, now just resting his elbow on the edge of the window with his chin resting on top of his knuckles, eyes lost to the beauty of fall. Jill finally managed to force herself to sleep and is now dozing peacefully under Chris's left arm that is wrapped around her small frame. The indomitable Chris has resolved himself into an intense study of all information they have collected on Plaga, the G-Virus, and Sherry Birkin, trying his best to find the connection to why they took Claire and didn't just kill her on the spot.

A bump shakes the taxi, startling everyone but the driver, almost like he has taken this road before, "Not far from castle now."

Leon rolls around the seat and reaches for the smaller bag they kept in the front with them, digging out a few clips of ammunition for his sidearm, "Might want to wake her. Give her a chance to break the stupor from her nap."

Chris nods in agreement and slowly wakes Jill up, finding her less than agreeable as she places a hand in his face to push him back, "Five more minutes…"

Leon smirks as the two fight back and forth over whether or not she gets sleep, while his mind drifts to Claire. They had plenty of mornings like that, where they fell asleep against each other's backs when they were in infested hellzones. A small chuckle leaves his lips as he remembers the one time they actually found a pretty safe house to sleep in with a working generator.

 _He took watch the whole night to give Claire a chance to sleep off a nasty fall she took, dozing off just before sunrise. He awoke to the smell of coffee, which made him bolt upright, gun aimed to find the person who snuck in._

" _Morning sleepyhead, black with half a teaspoon of sugar, just like you like it," the cup is placed in his hands as Claire walks back toward the steaming pot of coffee resting on the floor._

The two found a solid moment to perform small talk before the undead outside started to rap on their door, but for a moment, they found peace with each other, _Claire, be safe, I need you…_

11

"Claire!" Sherry brings her makeshift weapon up and slams the tip of the pipe into the jaw of one of their many attackers, snapping the head off with a burst of blood.

Red hair flips through the air as Claire spins back and pulls Sherry from the reaching grasp of another of the infected starting to surround them. A swing of her own pipe remedies this attack useless while she brings the weapon back down to take him out with a swift hit to the left temple. Claire growls and curses the situation as the two women are pushed back by the growing tsunami of bodies and blood, each one reaching for them, grasping for them, voices calling out in Spanish for them. Sherry is pulled to Claire's side and the older woman covers the blonde with her own body as the hands begin to lie upon them and drag the pair into the wall of infected flesh.

 _Damn it, I'm sorry Sherry_ , Claire awaits the bites and the scratches, but none of that comes as the two women are ripped from each other and held tight by one of the infected as the swarm splits open.

"Well, aren't you two just full of piss and vinegar…" the soldier slowly makes his way toward the two as Claire tries to bring her head back to attack the man holding her.

"We'll keep trying," Claire's voice is dark as she spits at the soldier.

A gloved hand is brought up to remove the liquid from his face, a snarl forming before melting into a smile that is made jagged by a large scar on one side of his face, "Doesn't matter at this point, ladies. We're here…"

There is little commotion as the two women are escorted up several flights of metal stairs and forced out a large door, the fading sunlight almost blinding after all their time in a relatively dark ship. Two pairs of blue eyes open to ocean as far as the eye can see in one direction, and a large, sheer cliff on the other side of the ship. What looks to be stonework from a castle of some kind is imbedded in the cliff-side, while there appears to be something floating in the chaotic waters below.

"Where is this?" Sherry shudders as Claire asks the question.

"Home," the soldier steps up and stares off into the wreckage of what might have stood on the cliff before it fell into the sea.

A blonde head rests against Claire's arm as Sherry whispers, "I was held here for a few months after they took me. There used to be a castle here, a rather destroyed one that is, but when the rest of it began to fall into the water as the cliff-side began to erode, everyone inside save for a few moved to this ship. I have lived on this ship ever since…"

"Someone must know where this place is, someone has t-" Claire slowly turns to face the soldier as it hits her, she knows who this man is.

"Something wrong?" his voice is darkened by the knowledge as the redhead slowly walks up to him.

"Krauser… You betray your country like this? To carelessly promote a war powered by bio-organic weapons? Former President Graham trusted YOU to keep his daughter safe after she was taken! Why turn your back on all of that!?" regardless of who is in control here, or who has what weapons, Claire finds herself screaming at the man and pushing him back before two men step up to restrain her.

Jack Krauser looks down at her with what can only be described as dead eyes, "What would you give to have something that was taken from you given back?"

Claire stops her rant at his words; of course he would use greed to rationalize his actions, "Depends on what was lost, I couldn't really say… What did they give you?"

Krauser holds up his left arm and twists the appendage around with his gaze intently locked on it, "When we made it to the castle, where we thought we'd be safe, we fought this blind monster… Took my left arm off just above the elbow… Just like that, everything was over. The mission, my career, our lives, all of it was gone with a single slash of a bladed hand. The cultists made their way into the room and took the girl away and brought me before their leader. Was given a choice, a chance. I took it without a second thought."

"Now you are a gopher right? Nice trade for an arm," blue eyes gaze at the distinct line where his arm regrew or something, however they did it is lost on her.

"What if they offered you the chance to see your parents again? Or ask you to trade your life for the girl's? What is the one thing you want most in life?"

"Fuck you," Claire is dragged back before Krauser can do something drastic in retaliation to her outburst.

11

"Who the hell posts armed guards on a road that ends in a sheer drop into the ocean?" Chris slides the binoculars over to Leon as the three agents perch themselves behind a pile of rocks a good distance from the blockade.

Blonde hair shifts as Leon peers through the lenses, a small chuckle leaving his lips, "Pay must be good, I'd be bored by this point and drawing easy board games in the dirt."

Jill speaks up as she brings the sight of her handgun in line with the forehead of the nearest guard, "Speaking of that we still need to finish that tic-tac-toe game you left in the taxi 'by accident'."

A huff as Leon adjusts the focus to peer farther out along the road, "You were cheating."

Chris matches Jill with his own firearm, picking a target with the second guard, "It was the third move and you were pissed because she put her x in the center spot. Call it, Leon."

Returning the view of the binoculars to the duo guarding nothing, he waits for both of them to be in line and stop moving to talk before performing a three-count, "Three, two, one, nail it."

Two gunshots sound like one as both guns are fired at once, both men dropping instantly before Leon curses out loud at a botched shot, "Thought you were the marksman, Redfield."

"Fuck off, we need to get him quick before he signals for help," the older man jumps the rock outcropping and bolts toward the downed guard, his knife quickly brought to bear and planted quickly into the skull of the guard.

Chris stands up slowly and wipes the blade clean on his pants leg before stepping back as something moves under the skin, his eyes following the movement intently before motioning for his companions to move up, "What could that be?"

The three agents watch the shape move around the body, disappearing for a second as it dives into the body, only to reappear in a spot closer to the head. The thing moves closer to the destroyed head before doing a small circle in the neck, like it can't get out. Suddenly the head explodes as six silver legs erupt from where the head used to be, the body quickly rising up. Leon and Jill open fire on the form as Chris steps back, taking in what just happened with a terrified interest. Center mass of the head is now just what appears to be a bubble of silver skin with six frantically-reaching spider-like legs as the body begins to walk toward them at a pace that brings to mind the zombies from the Arklay Mansion.

"Is this Plaga?" Jill brings a foot up and kicks the form back down to the ground, where Leon joins her in pumping a couple of quick rounds into the makeshift head, the silver bubble popping in a spray of dark red blood.

Chris kicks the body once as Jill walks over to the other guard and checks the wound, making sure that one won't get up anytime soon, "The thing must grow inside the body as it takes more and more control of the host. These things could technically get to a point where they can run around on their own."

"A virus that makes its own BOWs, almost impressive if it didn't terrify me to no end," Jill shudders at the thought before wrapping an arm around Chris.

"Put it on the back burner for now, we need to see what they were guarding," Chris leads the team up the road, his handgun pointed up for headshots, not wanting to take chances anymore.

 _What kind of nightmarish hell have they unleashed up here?_

11

Claire is snatched from her sleep as something jerks her up into the air by her bound wrists, the constraints more than likely steel cable. The room is dark, silent, void of any life besides her own, the woman unable to recall what happened last. She was on the deck of the freighter, turned to ask about an island just a bit off the coast, and then black. A small burst of cold wind fills the room as a door behind her opens up, Claire screaming out an expletive as she finds herself naked as she hangs from the ceiling.

"Ah, so you're awake, nice to see you are awake finally, my dear," the voice is familiar, but couldn't be who she thinks it is.

She finds herself spinning around as that damned telescoping pointer locks between her knees, "Thought you were dea- What the fuck?"

To her surprise, the doctor from earlier is standing before her, somehow not dead from how he landed when Sherry tripped him during one of their escape attempts, "The power of the master is stronger here… He demands the Plaga keep me alive, so here I am… Now, what does the BSAA know about us?"

Claire attempts to respond with a negative answer, but the pointer is smacked across her side harder than he's ever attacked before, her reply coming out as a sharp cry of pain, "No lies! NO JOKES! I WANT THE TRUTH!"

"You know your plan to infect us with Ashley Graham failed, right?" Claire sucks in sharply as her speaking agitates the large stinging wound on her side.

A chuckle, one that doesn't fit the doctor that tortured her before, fills the air as the pointer is placed under her chin, "It did what it was supposed to… We have all the chips in play now, just waiting for one final detail to fall into place before we begin…"

"What detail," she turns her head to the side to avoid a swipe from the metal weapon, "is that?"

"There are a few major characters that need to be in place… And if the guards are to be believed, they are almost here…" the doctor slowly pulls up a chair and sits down, propping his legs up on something Claire can't quite make out in the screwed up lighting.

"What does my brother have to do with this?" Claire feels her blood boil at the thought that her friends and family are nothing but pawns to these people.

"We'll have to delay them a bit you see, can't have the master being interrupted before the ceremony…" he is either deliberately ignoring her, or he's trying to drop hints to keep her distracted.

Claire keeps what he said in the back of her mind and finds herself involuntarily cringing as he stands up, the pointer waving around wildly as the doctor begins walking around the room, talking to himself in half-Spanish, half-English. Cursing herself for never really learning Spanish, the English half of the conversation isn't making much sense on its own. Claire tries to gaze around and find anything to use if she ever gets free, but her eyes just are unable to focus at all. There is a rustle as the doctor moves around, her skin crawling as a cold, clammy hand grasps her chin, pulling her around to look him in the bloodshot eyes.

"Do try to stay alive, Miss Redfield, would hate to see Chris and Leon breakdown at the sight of your dead and mangled corpse…" his words are spoken clearly and have a sharp edge to them, like the sentence was meant to be a threat.

 _He wants me to commit suicide? Or… This is so odd…_ her frantic blue eyes watch intently as the doctor moves from the room and with a swift swing of his right arm closes the door and encases her in darkness once again.

11

"What right do you have to ask me that? I was the one who called _you_ about my rogue agents," Cranston Reed growls at the faces before him on the computer monitor.

The woman on the left side of the screen nods in agreement and counters, "You may have done so, Senor Reed, but we have no proof that you didn't send them here in the first place. What would three of the best agents in the Bioterrorism Security and Assessment Alliance be doing in Spain anyway? We finally succeeded in closing our last TriCell facility last year, under THEIR supervision no less."

A deep sound of the other man clearing his throat fills the room, "Reed, I have promised the Spanish Government and the European Branch of the BSAA our full cooperation in this matter."

"Sorry President Benford, the North American BSAA pledges full support into this investigation. What can I do for you, Minister Anton?"

Deputy Prime Minister Rosa Anton nods and replies, "We need access to all information regarding the missions both teams were working on."

"Afraid I can't do that. Chris and Jill keep their work personal. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield were investigating a bioweapon sale in Paris a few days ago. How they ended up in Spain is a mystery to me, sorry," Reed keeps a straight face but inside his blood is boiling with rage.

As President Benford takes over to confirm what Reed has just said, the director of the BSAA finds himself cursing the Redfields and their compatriots. More so though, Cranston starts to hate President Benford; the man has become too enthralled by the power of his position and is risking ruining Cranston's career to save face in the eyes of the public. The two of them bonded over their love for Adam's daughter, brought into their fight against bioweapons and Chris Redfield by her death. The pain still hides in his heart for his dead love, but her death was necessary to fully bring Adam over to his side. Using his power as Director of the BSAA, Cranston backed Adam Benford's bid for the presidency, joining him at the victory ceremony when they announced him as the winner.

"Would you agree with that sentiment, Cranston?" he nods and responds positively before delving back into his hate.

To see a longtime friend turning his back on him is just infuriating as his anger grows deeper and deeper, but Cranston forces it down and smiles at the camera, "Yes ma'am, I will attempt to call them back again. Yes, if I fail, you have my authorization to use lethal force to neutralize the unknown threat they present."

As both lines are disconnected, Cranston turns toward the large window overlooking the city below, "If Los Illuminados fails to reinvigorate the threat bioweapons face… They can't fail."

11

"So, yeah, what do we do now?" Leon stares down the long drop to the rocky waters below as Chris punches a tree nearby.

"There was a village nearby; maybe we could rent a boat?" Jill's idea is squandered as Leon mentions the thought of a large Plaga-infected water monster.

Chris steps up to the edge, his eyes focusing on the ship anchored a bit offshore, "We need to get onto that boat… Claire is on there, I know it."

"Doesn't help us get there…" Leon sighs as he tries to think of a way to get across the expanse separating him from Claire.

As Chris and Jill discuss ideas for ways to access the freighter in the distance, Leon sits down at the edge of the cliff and stares at the boat floating out on what appear to be calm waters. Claire is almost within reach and the former cop can't stand it, he needs to see her, make sure she is safe. Leon finds himself realizing he took it all for granted; everything from the smell of her hair, the warmth she adds to the room or car they both occupy, even the annoying attempts she made to sing songs she didn't know the lyrics too. Leon grunts in frustration and punches the dirt with his right hand, his eyes flashing as he hears something jingle in his pocket. His fingers pull out from the pocket tangled in the golden chain of the necklace he had made for her for her birthday. He completely forgot that he never actually gave it back to her after their talk on top of the SUV, a small smile crossing his lips as he thinks back fondly on that night.

"Guys, we need to risk it. Let's head down to that village," Leon ushers his two friends in the direction of the village, finding his eyes focused on the large plume of smoke crawling over the trees and into the darkening sky.

11

Sherry stares at the wall as her left index finger slowly rolls a pencil back and forth, her mind not able to focus on much of anything, let alone what they want her to write, "Write a letter to your friend. Telling her to cooperate. Give her hope. Why give her hope?"

Blue eyes drop down to the single word she's been able to write since they dropped the pencil and single piece of white stationary in front of her, "Hope. I had hope once… When I was first taken…"

That single phrase, 'I had hope once', echoes through her mind and the pencil drops from her grip, bouncing off the table before hitting the floor, "Oh fuck…"

Sherry begins to write the letter they requested, putting everything they want into it, the right words working into her mind as she flips the page over and continues pouring everything onto the paper. Tears fall from her eyes as Sherry scribbles a note just for Claire in the bottom right corner. Before she can offer it to the man before her he rips it from the table and storms out, the door slamming loudly at his exit.

"Damn it all, Claire… I'm so sorry…"

11

Claire groans as she is awaken by the ship swaying due to being hit by a large wave, "Hello?"

The feeling that someone else is in the room rings true as a voice speaks up, "I'm sorry Claire. Sorry for what they are putting you through on my account. Do not worry though, Chris and Leon are coming for you. Keep strong and don't give up, Claire."

The voice appears before her, sitting a wooden chair down before taking a seat and smiling at the bound woman, "Must be nice to be cared about, hmm? I've never known what that feels like, growing up on the streets, taken by those who would only use me to their own means. You though, you have a family, a support system. You, Claire, have love. She seeks to give you hope, but there is none here, no hope for the wicked my dear…"

"Hope is always the last thing to go," Claire cringes as the man erupts into laughter that is just too loud for her cramped and silent room.

"Life is the last thing to go. Hope is before that. Know what is usually the first thing to go? Pride. You give up fighting and use all that strength to cling to the hope of rescue. I know a thing or two about that…" a snap fills the air before the door to her cell is flung open and random goon number three hands a folder to the doctor before her.

"Ah, a gift, a sign of good faith if you will," the man stands on his chair and hangs something from the ceiling.

"Never say we haven't been gracious hosts…" he exits promptly, leaving Claire with a large photo of Chris, Jill, and Leon in what appears to be a small village, guns poised to fire at something off-shot.

 **END**


	11. Ten: Aggressive Advancement

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Ten: Aggressive Advancement

"Oh sure, the villagers will be helpful… They'll give us a boat no problem…" three shots are fired from Leon's handgun as the crowd of Plaga-Infected villagers slowly swarms the trio as they back up against the large bonfire in the center of the village.

He grits his teeth and slams the weapon against the side of a villager's head before dropping a foot down to crush the skull, "No way in hell could a village so close to the Los Illuminados compound be infected with Plagas…"

"I have another tampon if you need, princess. Or are you done bitching?" Jill quickly ejects the empty magazine, sliding it into her pack before jamming a fresh one home and dropping a round into the skull of a rushing infected.

Chris doesn't have a smart remark to counter them, his eyes focused on taking out the more violent of the bunch with well-practiced headshots. A burst of blood from the back of the group, then a Plaga-spider scrambles over the crowd and lunges at him. A swing of the large knife Chris keeps handy ends that threat before he follows through with the swing and drops the blade into the skull of one villager who got way too close. A curse from Leon as they all realize they aren't really getting anywhere except short on ammunition so Chris retorts by ushering them around the fire and toward a large set of doors at the northern end of town.

"Holy shit!" Jill dodges a sickle that was thrown at her as Chris drives a shoulder into the door, snapping the rusted hinges free and helping his teammates through the door as the crowd begins to rush it.

"Now why would they have the locking bolts on the outside of the village?" Chris doesn't want an answer to the question as he locks the door tight, relishing in the relative safety of this side of the wall.

Leon quickly reloads a magazine with loose rounds from the pouch attached to his belt before sliding the clip into his empty handgun, "Would love an answer to that, but I think we have a larger problem…"

"Like what?" Chris spins around from the large doors and regrets getting curious as a hatchet digs into the thick wooden bolt next to his head.

11

"Krauser, sir. It appears that they have made it past the village square and are slowly making their way to the farms. What are we to do? I already have another group moving in on them, but I doubt they will hold them for long," Krauser runs a finger down the long scar that adorns his face before chuckling lightly.

"Nothing they do will really matter. It's only a matter of time before we break the Redfield sister and make her one of us. See to it that they get a visit from the Garrador…" the parasite nods and walks away from the taller soldier as a flash of light off the calm water catches his attention.

"No sir, they won't be a problem any time soon. We have more than enough barricades to throw at them to give us the time we need," another flash brings a smile to Krauser's face.

11

Chris aims down the sight of his handgun, waiting patiently as Leon and Jill back up to take up positions on either side of him as the group of infected villagers begins a slow march toward them. A few shots from his left signal that Leon is growing worried, just as a hand on his shoulder from his right reveals Jill's own worry. Chris just smiles and drops his aim down before squeezing the trigger, the shot digging into the leg of a villager coming up from behind the mob. The larger villager begins to fall forward, beginning a domino effect that takes down every villager except for two, which Leon takes down with two clean headshots.

"Come on, before they get back up," Chris leads the two over the mass of body parts as he eyes two barns off in the distance.

The one on the left is too open, so he jumps over a small fence and enters the white barn where he scales a ladder and helps his two partners up, "What are we going to do now?"

Leon asks the question, only to get Chris pulling the ladder up as a response, "We got a little time to think before they think to grab the ladder outside. How far are we from that lagoon that feeds into the ocean where the boat is, Jill?"

"A couple hundred meters at best, mile at the most?" not the best answer he has heard today, but definitely a good one if it wasn't for the mass of bloodied weapons and crazed villagers stomping around beneath their feet.

"Check the cabinets and boxes up here for anything useful, gonna be a danger-filled trip to the lake today," the other two ignore Leon's attempt at a joke as they pry open the boxes covered by dry hay.

Chris's eyes must be wrong; there is no way that a gold-plated beerstein could have been left behind by these people. The lid of the box is slowly lowered back down as the elder of the three just shakes his head and opens another, finding little of any real use. Jill gives a small cheer and reveals a box of rounds for a rifle they don't have, but must be a sign that the gun they are used in is close by. Leon comes up empty as well so they turn to the only window on this level and make their way out and onto the walkway connecting the two barns.

Leon looks to the left before jumping at Jill, pushing her to the wooden walkway as a large two-by-four spins overhead, "Son of a bitch!"

The two climb to their feet as Chris falls off the side, the piece of lumber having collided with his chest with enough force to send him over the edge. Jill nods at Leon and aims her handgun at the fast-approaching horde of villagers as Leon jumps off after Chris and helps him to his feet. Gunfire rings out as Leon ushers Chris toward the large metal doors at the other end of the farmstead before turning to cover Jill with trigger pulls of his own. Chris works to push the doors open, but as a gap is formed by the creaking doors something rips them open and the male Redfield finds himself yet again flipping through the air as someone is pushed into his chest again.

"What the fuck!?" dirt fills the air as Chris lands in and destroys what appears to be a chicken coop.

Leon quickly spins and empties a round into the form before getting a look at it, grimacing as the bullet ricochets off the armor plating wrapped around the man's chest. As green eyes look the monster up and down, they widen as the form brandishes two-foot long sets of metal claws on both hands, swinging wildly with an uppercut from the left hand. Leon flips back to avoid the slice and drains another round into what little exposed skin he can find.

The round hits flesh, but the blood that drips from the wound is almost black and thick like jam, "This thing is dead, blood is coagulated…"

"Headsho- Nevermind," Chris glares at the metal helmet strapped to the head of their adversary, noting that there isn't a single hole in the thing, not even for eyes.

 _How is it tracking us?_ Jill runs up next to Chris and fires a round of her own behind them, still trying to fend off the group that is now five less than before.

The monster quickly jolts its head toward Jill's position then bursts into a full sprint, brandishing the claws as Chris pushes her out of the way, "SOUND!"

11

He smiles a bit as Leon nods and looks around for anything that would make sound, finding not much in that regards, but does see that every once in a while, the monster glances at the crowd rushing them from the opposite side of the farm. As Jill empties rounds into the group to keep them interested and Chris keeps her moving around the farm to keep the clawed-beast away from them, Leon takes this time to work back through the farm and circles around behind the mob. Steady fingers pull his handgun up and he takes aim at the monster honing in on Chris and Jill's position. Three quick rounds are fired at the metal helmet and he smiles as it stumbles for a second and then charges toward him, colliding with the group of villagers. Blood sprays into the air and covers the ground as the villagers try to escape the onslaught brought on from the monster mistaking them for its targets.

Leon circles back around to Chris and Jill and the trio makes its way to the open door, "Quickly, before it realizes we aren't there."

Leon closes the doors once they are through and with Chris's help he lowers the steel beams into the locking brackets, securing the door for a while at best, "What in the hell was that? And how the fuck are we going to kill it while it is wearing body armor?"

Jill leans against the door and sighs, swiping sweat from her brow as she ejects the empty magazine into her pouch and slides a fresh one in, "No idea, but hopefully it stays behind this door for a while. Chris?"

Both of them turn to look at Chris as a gloved hand is clenched to his chest, "Son of a bitch must've broken a rib with that kick… I'll be fine for a while. Come on, we need to keep moving."

11

Claire groans as the man sharing the room with her reads the letter again, "You know, I could read it to _you_ if you want. I've heard it enough times to memorize the damned thing."

A chuckle fills the room as the note is held up to her, "There is a back page you know… We haven't read the GOOD stuff yet."

Blue eyes scan the page quickly, locking on two words scribbled in a different handwriting than the rest of the note, the handwriting of a scared girl, "Raccoon City…"

As the man starts to read the second half of the letter, Claire finds herself escaping the room and landing back into the burning streets of that hellish nightmare. His voice echoes through the air like the voice of God, but it means little as Claire walks down the alley behind Kendo's gunshop. There must be a reason Sherry wrote this city down that way, something Claire needs to know. As she rounds the corner to the stairs something crosses in front of a light, blinding her for a second. The redhead finds herself back in that dark room that reeks of bad liquor and leather, her ears picking up the sounds of a sobbing girl.

She flicks on the light switch and finds herself back in that room with the infected man reading the letter to her, "There is no longer hope, Claire. I'm sorry. Sherry Birkin. See, even she knows there is nothing left to live for anymore…"

A smirk grabs his attention as Claire replies, "The brightest light in our darkest memories is hope, asshole… A good friend taught me that…"

Before he can speak or call for help, Claire brings her legs up and wraps the left around his neck as her right foot is pressed into his throat. Something bulges inside his neck, but Claire keeps the pressure on, using all of her strength to kill both the man and the monster inside. Claire taught Sherry that there is hope, there is always hope. A Redfield never gives up, no matter how bleak the future looks. Claire doesn't let go of her grip on the man's neck until blood begins to pour from every orifice in his head, the body crumpling to the ground as she feels a new strength build inside her.

As the door is kicked open and Krauser steps in wielding a rather impressive knife, Claire smirks at him, "You're gonna need more goons, prick."

The snarl that greets her distorts the large scar on his face as the soldier steps forward, "I won't be requesting more grunts. You've just pushed yourself up the schedule, Miss Redfield."

Claire locks gazes with her captor and braces for the impact, instead finding a pang of fear creep through her body as the blade is slowly brought up to her face, "Hope is dead, Claire."

11

"Denise, any reports on a bioterror outbreak?" Cranston quickly marches into the command center for the North American BSAA and takes a seat in his personal leather chair.

The blonde woman with a large headset around her neck shakes her head before resuming her furious typing on the keyboard before her, "No sir, nothing since Kennedy and Redfield returned from Chile. Are you expecting one, sir?"

A grimace crosses his face as he quickly works to cover his tracks, "No, Denise. They've just been popping up like clockwork over the past three years and all of a sudden they just stopped. Change irks me is all."

Honestly though, Cranston is worried about the lack of activity for a different reason. Los Illuminados has traded enough G-Virus samples around the world that SOMETHING should've popped up already. Darkness fills his mind as he questions whether or not the report they intercepted from the last Raccoon City scientist was right and the G-Virus is way too unstable. If that is the case there are probably a vast number of isolated incidents in underground bunkers that will never be seen or reported. If the same group has bought multiple samples to avoid detection, there might just be that large biohazard nightmare the BSAA needs hidden beneath the very ground they walk upon.

"Denise, highlight the areas with G-Virus deals, please," as more and more dots light up the map of the world, Reed feels a deep pang of fear fill the pit of his stomach.

 _The G-Virus is now located in thirty-five percent of the planet, nestled secretly on six of the seven continents… What in the hell have I unleashed?_

11

"What in the hell is that thing?" Leon doesn't know whether to act his age and shoot it in case it isn't dead, or give in to the childish temptation to poke it with a stick.

Chris drops two rounds into what he guesses is the face of the behemoth before replying, "It's dead, whatever it is, I think."

"Looks like there is a small fishing cabin on the other side of the lagoon, hurry up, boys," Jill doesn't give the monster a second thought, not even letting the question of why there are several large hooks driven into the top of the monster plague her thoughts.

The trio of BOW-busting survivors quickly hustles around the dark and smelly water, each one keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Despite their preparations for the inevitable, their travel around the lagoon to the cabin is uneventful with the three people arriving with the same amount of ammunition as when they started the hike. Leon pushes the door open as Chris raises his handgun and steps in, sweeping left to right before motioning for his partners to enter as well. There seems to be nothing out of the ordinary inside the cabin as Jill starts rummaging through the shelves and cabinets that line the walls.

"Who in the hell leaves expensive gems lying around?" her search turns up a handful of multi-colored gems, each one rather expensive-looking, as well as a moldy plastic container.

Chris sighs and chuckles at the scene, taking this opportunity to rest a bit and leans against the counter opposite the door, "Take them if you want and Merry Christmas from me, Jill."

There is a dead silence before Jill tosses one of the gems at him, "Dick. So guess it's on to a boat now then?"

"Sure, if you can find one," Leon peers out through the window facing the lagoon, frowning as there isn't a boat outside that looks remotely useable.

"Kennedy we really need to force you to take more vacations already," Chris pats the younger agent on the back and leads them back outside with his eyes set on one particular boat.

Chris grabs the side of the sinkable vessel and quickly flips it over, the hole underneath catching his gaze. Before either of his teammates can ask a question he disappears inside the cabin and reemerges with a warped plastic lid from the container Jill found earlier. Chris proceeds to press the lid against the hole with his left hand while the right rummages through the pockets of his pants and jacket.

"Looking for something?" Chris smirks as he picks up on the tone in Jill's question.

He stands up and holds his hand out to his partner, "I quit smoking, so no, Jill. Where's your lighter?"

She smiles at him before placing the golden Zippo in his palm, the S.T.A.R.S. insignia worn off a bit but still visible as the item is clenched in his hand, "Some memories are hard to let go of, right?"

He nods at her question before slowly waving the flame over the piece of plastic, watching it warp to fill the hole in the hull of their water-travelling craft. When the hole is successfully covered, Chris flips the wooden boat over and begins dragging it toward the edge of the water with Leon's help in the endeavor.

"I bow before the master fisherman," Chris laughs as Leon performs a fake bow before waving for Jill to jump in first.

"I really hate to question the obvious, but what if the river out is blocked?" both men look at Jill before slowly pushing the boat out into the water.

11

"Does it drive you?" Krauser once again begins a slow circle around the redhead as the knife grazes the skin around her abdomen.

Claire breathes out and holds it so as not to risk getting a deep cut from the blade, then replies once the blade is removed from her vicinity, "What?"

He looks down at the skin peelings on the blade and shakes them off, "Hope. Does hope give you the power to fight us?"

"I don't even know what you people want..." Claire hates replying with that as he leans in close, the smell on his breath unidentifiable as he laughs.

"We need someone on the inside… Someone within the BSAA who can still access the outside world… Our last…" he leans his head back, like he is looking for the right words. "Recruitment drive you could say, didn't go so well. We have decided to take a more direct approach, but there are complications that we need your help to overcome…"

Claire's blue eyes scan his face for anything she can use, growling as he is as cold as stone, "Why would I help you?"

"Plagas needs to be accepted by the host for our mission to succeed, you see…" Krauser presses a button on a device attached to his belt and smiles as one of the infected followers rolls a cart in, the top of which is occupied by a large case made of thick glass.

"When a Plaga is forced into a subject, like it was for most of the people aboard this ship and in the surrounding villages, it takes over, you become a pawn to the Master… Now, if you accept the Plaga, it bonds with you, and you hide in plain sight. Plain sight is what we need, Miss Redfield. We need you to accept this gift and become our agent of chaos within the BSAA."

Claire's eyes widen as she begins to realize their plan, "And what would I do as this, agent of chaos, as you call it?"

A large smile crosses his face before he replies, "Bring about complete infection. You will be the Agent of Chaos that spreads the word of Saddler across the world…"

 **END**


	12. Eleven: Chaos Becomes

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Eleven: Chaos Becomes

"Director Reed, sir, there is a call for you from the White House," Cranston curses to himself as he picks up the phone resting next to his large chair in the command center for the B.S.A.A.

"Yes, President Benford, what can I do for you?" the tone of voice that responds to his question worries him.

"Cranston, what are you doing to retrieve our agents from Spain?" Adam has been pressured to bring back the Redfields and their partners…

A long silence fills the air as Reed tries to determine their best course of action, as the plan all along has been to allow Los Illuminados to bring about a new biohazard threat. Redfield and Valentine haven't been out in the field in years so they aren't really a threat to the plan, while Kennedy is distracted by his partner being captured by enemy forces. There is no reason why rescuing them should even be an option unless Benford is backing out.

There is a crack as Cranston tightens his grip on the phone, nearly breaking it, "I can see about calling the European Branch to see what they can provide for a support squad. I thought we wanted to avoid an international incident, sir? I thought we all agreed that the Spanish Government can use lethal force if our agents become a threat themselves?"

There is a near silence, but Cranston can pick up a female voice, actually that is _**the**_ female voice, "Deputy Prime Minister Anton sent me a report that illustrates where our people are operating. It appears that they are harassing a small fishing village not far from the coast. We need to bring them back before their deaths create an international incident that will see everyone involved with the B.S.A.A. brought up on charges. The last thing we need right now, Director Reed, at a time like this, is scandal. Do you understand me?"

The line is cut off as Reed growls deeply, "You bastard… I can't believe… You selfish sack of shit!" the phone is thrown across the room as everyone inside the command center slowly turns to look at their Director.

11

"We should've thought this out better…." Leon hangs one arm off the boat and lets it drag through the water as their boat moves slowly through the small river.

Jill smirks and replies, while she checks their current ammunition count, "Chris is strong enough to use you for an oar if you like."

"Guys, quiet. Leon, remember that big monster back at the edge of the lagoon?" his friend nods. "There might be more of them in the water."

The dark blonde man quickly removes his hand from the water and sighs harder, "Could this be any worse? We need to get to Claire, now!"

A laugh is shared between Chris and Jill, which quickly grabs his attention, "What did I say?"

Jill pats him on the shoulder and sighs, "I bet Claire would find you more romantic if you got out and pushed…"

11

"Get that fucking thing away from me!" Claire raises her bound feet and kicks the case away before the infected goon could pull the lid up.

The Plaga crashes to the floor in a spray of glass and some kind of stagnant liquid before it writhes around for a bit, "Now now, Miss Redfield, this would go so much easier if you would just give in. Accept the gift."

Krauser adjusts his sitting position as he watches this farce continue yet again, "I told you to weigh her feet down after the first sample was destroyed. Now, after two lost samples, I order you to weigh her feet down."

A huff fills the room as Krauser watches the two peons slowly bind her feet to two pipes, holding them in place tightly as one of them promptly exits the room to get another sample of the Plaga. His eyes slowly rise to meet Claire's, taking in every bit of her form, noticing the battle scars across her body. A few of them he recognizes as bullet grazings, others look like claw marks both human and animal, each one telling a story he might have to ask her about once she is more compliant. Something grabs his attention and Krauser finds himself locking with her eyes, a fire burning behind the blue orbs as she clears her throat and launches the contents across the room at him.

The glob connects with his face and Krauser quickly wipes it from his visage with the back of his gloved hand, "You are severely testing the Master's patience, girl."

A smile as Claire licks the loose spit from her lips, "I noticed the Plaga has a penchant for increasing the infected's strength… If you do manage to get one into me, I'm gonna use it to tear you limb-from-limb…"

"I," Krauser instantly appears inches from her face, one hand wrapped tightly around her throat, "accept the challenge."

11

Leon uses his spare knife to pry the other board up from the boat's seating area and uses it to paddle faster on the left as Chris uses his board on the right side. Soon their vessel begins to pick up speed as they near a blind turn, the speed increases a lot more than they expect as Jill sits up from her spot at the front of the boat. Their shared fear is realized as the blind turn is completed to reveal that they are at the home stretch; the container ship resting in the distance as they near what appears to be a small drop.

"You guys ever been white-water kayaking?" Leon asks the question more as a precursor to him planting his feet tightly against the sides of the boat as Chris assumes the same position a foot or two behind him while Jill grasps the edges of the front of the boat tightly in her hands.

Something churns under the boat as they near the drop into the rapids, Chris noticing it first, followed by his two comrades soon after, "What in the hell?"

Before the trio can brace themselves for anything, the water around them explodes with a violent force, something deep roaring around them. As the water begins to cascade back down around them, Chris and Leon notice that they are flying through the air. Chris opts to look over the back of their craft and spots something he said as a joke earlier come to be truth; there is at least one more of the monsters they saw dead at the lagoon.

"This is about as crappy as a day can get!" Chris continues to press his body into the boat as they slam hard on the water about midway down the rapids leading to the freighter.

Leon coughs as the splash from the boat drenches the entire craft in water, the vehicle rocking severely in the water as Jill slowly rises up to search for the mystery monster that attacked them, "Seems it can't follow after us in the shallow water here… Lucky us, I think…"

"Well, one thing is for certain," Leon swats his soaked hair away from his eyes, "I can cross kayaking off my bucket list…"

Chris sighs at his partner before grabbing the board and using it push them away from the fast-approaching rocks, "Make yourself useful or killing you will make my bucket list…"

11

Claire's eyes haven't moved from their lock with Krauser's ever since he accepted her challenge of a Plaga-powered battle, "What happened to you? You had a choice before the Illuminados gave you one, you know that right?"

Krauser uses the tip of the blade to clean the dried blood from under his fingernails, "Oh yeah? What would that have been?"

"Kill Ashley Graham and bleed out in that room. You knew the President wouldn't pay any ransom they demanded for her return, so why let her get taken again? You saw something while you were fighting your way to safety, to an escape for both of you, didn't you?" his eyes flash before he closes them and sighs loudly.

"Your constant prattling is growing old rather quickly. There is nothing left of the good little soldier sent in to retrieve a spoiled American brat. So stop trying," the clumps of dried blood are rubbed off onto his pants as he starts on another nail.

Claire sighs, shaking the chains around her feet to grab his attention, "Not trying to appeal to the goodness in your heart. I want to know what you saw, see if I see the same thing. What did you see that made you give up an innocent girl's life for?"

"Decades of training, hours at the range, several theaters of war, all of that meant nothing against the power and numbers Saddler had at his disposal back then. I shoot one in the chest, he just kept coming, and that intrigued me. Three things power humanity, Claire: Greed, Love, and Power. I saw power in each cultist I killed. Every time we thought we were safe for a brief moment, their overwhelming power forced us to keep going, always on the defensive. I have always been at someone's beck and call and I was tired of it," Krauser drops his feet from the table they are resting on and he leans forward, locking an even more intent stare with the redhead.

"I chose following an old man's orders in order to acquire the power to give orders. No longer will I put my life on the line to protect some snot-nosed brat," the battle-worn soldier wipes the blade of his knife on his pants leg before slipping the weapon back into the sheathe at the base of his spine.

"You don't want to follow orders, but accepted a parasite that allows someone to control you?" Claire wiggles her arm across her nose to squelch an itch. "You truly are the epitome of a good soldier…"

There is a loud smack before Claire feels the pain well up quickly in her right cheek, the force of the backhand worse than she thought it should be, _Is this the power of the Plaga?_

11

"What the hell is that thing? Shit, Chris, that's a damn minigun…" Leon drops the binoculars as Chris steers their boat behind a large piece of debris.

The larger man shifts his weight around in the boat and picks up the magnifying device, scanning the freighter for more threats, "Three miniguns, looks like a couple of them are carrying rocket launchers, the fuck? I see two guys with chainsaws."

A scan around their target reveals several patches of debris they can hide behind, which gives Chris an idea, "We gotta swim for it…"

"With more of those things possibly out there? Yeah, good luck getting me into the water…" Leon regrets that statement as Chris slowly lowers himself into the water with Jill sighing heavily before joining him.

Before he can blink, the two are already halfway to their next debris pile, so Leon just jumps in after them, "Don't let it eat me…"

Leon arrives at the same rock as his two partners, waiting for Chris to give the signal before diving under and swimming quickly to the next break, his mind quickly becoming filled with anxious thoughts of rescuing Claire and Sherry from the nightmare they must be facing. His head breaks the surface and a breath is taken in to replenish the oxygen he needs, Chris and Jill already dropping back under and taking off to the next stop, the three of them now halfway to the freighter. A deep breath, a near silent splash, and a kick sends Leon off after them, mind still focused on Claire.

 _Almost there…_

11

Chris is still battling how he feels about Leon and Claire being together, but Jill is right, this is his sister's decision, and if he is the one she wants, he has to accept it. Doesn't have to like it, but he can accept her wishes. He can tell Leon is getting more unfocused they closer they get to where the younger Redfield is being held, but Chris finds himself more focused than ever. From what Jill read off about Krauser on their way here, he is going to be a strong opponent, even without the Plaga increasing his strength… A smile crosses Chris's lips as a thought comes to mind, stronger than his desire to save his sister: he can't wait to crush Krauser with his bare hands.

It's been such a long time since he has had something else to focus on besides Wesker, "I'll go up first, wait for my signal…"

Before Chris can grab the rung of the ladder, Leon cuts in front of him and quickly scales it, disappearing quickly over the top, "O…kay… So, how're things?"

A glare from Jill, then a sigh, "Little cold and there is this small prick annoying me to no end…"

"I know, Leon can be whiny at times…" he chuckles as Jill sighs heavily. "I know you were referring to me… Ah, there's our sign."

Chris begins his ascent, feeling the anticipation of combat creeping up on him the closer he gets to solid ground. A quick peek over the railing shows a Plaga-powered soldier dead from a broken neck, guns missing. He already knows where their weapons went, but still looks over at Leon, who is checking the weapons and handing them out as need be. Chris snatches the larger machine gun from Leon as he tries to hand the male Redfield another pistol.

"You seriously about to give me another pistol?" Leon shrugs and slides the handgun into the space at the small of his back.

"What do we do with the bodies?" Jill groans as the bodies begin to break up and dissolve right before their eyes. "Oh, right…"

11

"Claire…" Sherry stares at the shackles strapped to her feet as her ears pick up the screams reverberating through the pipes.

Thirteen distinct screams, meaning that Krauser is creating more soldiers, possibly to replace the ones Claire and she have killed. Sherry sighs as she feels a long-forgotten pain creep into her heart, a pain that she let go of long ago to make her days here bearable. Little Miss Birkin groans as hope fills her heart once again, the hope of escape, the hope of a better life.

 _I am not going to last another day aboard this ship…_ her eyes drift down to the massive number of needle marks adorning her arms, regretting being born into the Birkin family.

Something burns deeps inside the pit of her stomach, the warmth comforting, a feeling that brings back memories of that night in Raccoon City. She never truly felt as safe as she did with Claire watching over her and that Claire would not tolerate Sherry regretting things, or giving in to despair. That warmth becomes a raging fire of defiance as the blonde slowly stands up and stares at the door, her fists clenched in anger, waiting for the next form to walk through that door.

 _I will not give in, this hope gives me strength, a strength I long forgot I had. Thank you, Claire, for everything…_ the door slowly opens as Sherry grits her teeth.

11

Chris quickly sweeps the first room they gain access to from the main deck of the freighter, his mind on an adrenaline high as the three of them make their way deeper into the bowels of the beast. A careful peek around a corner and he holds up a hand while releasing the machine gun back into its position at his side, opting for his knife as he creeps closer toward the unaware infected. One large arm is wrapped around the neck, also pinning one arm up while the other drives the large blade through the skull, killing the target immediately. He lowers the body to the ground before it starts dissolving and waves for the two to quickly follow after him.

They don't know how many are going to be here, or how strong some of them are going to be, but Chris knows they can handle it, believes they have to handle it, "Floor by floor?"

"Works for me, you handle point, Leon and I will keep an eye on the stairs for extra visitors," Jill's voice is as calm as his own, solidifying his choice of her as a partner through all of it.

His eyes scan absolutely everything for movement as he moves to clear this level of the freighter room-by-room. As the spaces become more and more cramped, he swaps the machine gun for his handgun, opting to use his blade unless absolutely necessary. Another three infected dead as he feels the rage dying down slightly. It has been way too long since Chris has been in the field, Wesker has absorbed way too much of his life. As Chris passes a door, he feels a hand drop onto his shoulder and instinct kicks in. The hand is grabbed in a thumb hold, the arm twisted around as Chris spins to his right, the blade quickly driven up through the chin and into the base of the brain as blood sprays the walls. This body is quickly dropped as another infected rounds the corner, the blood-filled eyes locking with his own as a handgun is fired from his left, shattering the skull with a perfectly-aimed shot.

Leon quickly steps up and secures the room the first infected appeared from as Jill and Chris both take a direction at the end of this hallway, "Clear!"

"Not going to be for long," Chris cleans the blood from his knife as Leon rejoins them, "that gunshot will have been heard throughout the ship."

There it is, the feeling of excitement, the feeling like he is making a difference, this is what Chris has missed the most about being in the field.

11

"I've had enough of these useless games," Krauser stands up and walks toward the door, Claire's scowl lost as he loses sight of her.

He reaches for the light switch and sighs heavily, "Maybe the darkness of the room will bring out the darkness in your heart…"

Claire sighs as the darkness starts to envelope her, much as it has the past few nights. How many nights has she been on this freighter? It feels like way too many, feels like the day she was handed that picture of Sherry before flying off to Paris was a lifetime ago. The darkness isn't as bad as everyone seems to make it out to be, she usually welcomes it as it affords her the time and the canvas to work out her nightmares. Once she gets through those it gives her some time to focus on the bright spots of her life.

A smile crosses her lips as she comes to the realization there aren't any more nightmares to fight through, _So what do I think about now?_

She closes her eyes, for all the good it does, and allows the first thought to randomly come to her mind. It's a face, that much she knows, but whose face is it? The hair begins to form, the blonde color too dark to be Sherry's, not shaggy enough to be Leon's… She focuses on the face, forcing the details to reveal themselves to her, and the face she is thinking about is someone she has never seen before, but has often thought about once the nightmares die down. This face hasn't really been a prevalent part of her life since she survived Rockfort, but became a more prominent part of her thoughts as she was partnered more and more with Leon through the B.S.A.A.

 _My face, Leon's hair, and the Redfield stare… Our daughter…_

 **END**


	13. Twelve: Shattered Mirrors

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Twelve: Shattered Mirrors

Leon drops behind the metal container and slides another magazine into his empty handgun as Chris provides a little more suppressing fire, "If this is the new face of bioweapons, why in the hell is Umbrella peddling the G-Virus to the world?"

"We will worry about that well after they are all dead!" Jill squeezes the trigger and smiles as the infected drops from a headshot, only to find that joy decimated as it gets back up with that parasite for a head.

The last enemy brandishing a gun is killed and Chris walks toward the mutated infected, brandishing his knife between both hands. The blade is pulled back and he starts into a run, using his momentum to drive the knife through the bulbous matter of the parasite. Tentacles whip around frantically as a screech leaves the monstrosity, but that is quickly ended as Chris bends down, then uses the force of a jump to slice the parasitic head in half in a spray of blood.

"Could you have made that just a little bloodier?" Leon starts filling the empty magazine with fresh rounds as the two of them rejoin Chris.

Some part of this is going to have to draw Krauser out, eventually the brawn of the operation will face judgement, it's only a matter of how much time is it going to take? Leon finds his mind drifting towards Claire and Sherry with every bullet spent, knowing this is a terrible mindset to find himself in, but no longer able to fight it. He doesn't see how Chris and Jill manage it; being together and fighting this war, as he can't stand the thought of anything happening to Claire.

"Come back to reality, lover boy," Jill smacks him on the back of the head.

Chris doesn't say anything, nor does he even look Leon's way, apparently his mind is trying to avoid that particular detail. Both Jill and Leon return to keeping an eye on the sides as Chris keeps focused on threats in front of them. Jill tries to call out, but she isn't fast enough before a fist sends Chris through a door.

"About time I found you three…" the voice is deep, threatening, but with a hint of military training, this is Krauser.

Chris emerges from the room rubbing his jaw, "Where the fuck is my sister you piece of shit?"

Jill and Leon keep their guns trained on the man as Chris and he square off, "Oh? She was your sister? That is… Unfortunate…"

There is no more time for words as Chris pounces on the much larger man, driving his fist square between the eyes, shattering the man's nose, "You mother fucker!"

Jill steps toward the two, but a loud scream from behind draws her attention, "How in the hell does that thing fit in here!?"

It's the same blind monster they briefly encountered in the village and it is wasting no time using its claws to shred the hallway to pieces. Leon steps up next to her and reveals a handful of handgun rounds.

"Chris, take that fight into a room, we have our own problem here!" he takes a bullet and rockets it down the hall past the monster.

The shell bounces off a pipe a ways behind the monster, causing it to slowly spin around before charging at the spot the bullet hit, "It's like a game…"

"How do we kill it?" Jill raises her handgun to the monster as it quickly turns around, like it knows where the real threat is.

Leon's eyes have done nothing but scan the beast since they first saw it and he has an idea, "There's a growth on its back… Might be the same parasite that pops out of the soldiers here…"

"As good a guess as any," Jill slowly steps to the right as Leon fires on the monster before jumping to the left.

The blind infected roars and jumps at the spot Leon fired from, claws digging deep into the metal floor as Jill steps around him and opens fire almost point-blank into the mass resting along its spine. Blood fills the air as it quickly rises to its feet and begins to swing wildly, the metal claws becoming entangled and bent in the wires and metal around it. Soon the thrashing dies down and the two smile as they realize it has gotten itself stuck. Both of the agents rest the barrels of their guns against the parasitic growth and drain their clips, giving each other a high-five as it hangs dead, body slowly beginning to disintegrate.

"Guess we go save Chris now, right?" Jill steps toward the door the two embattled men entered and adjusts her beret before stepping in.

11

Chris feels a fire erupt within him as he trades blows with Krauser, imagining his sister in different states of despair with each punch taken, thus fueling his own punches. A flash in his peripheral and Chris crosses his arms, blocking the swing of the knife, then he raises his knee into Krauser's gut. This fight doesn't seem to be going how Chris imagined it would, something is off about his opponent.

"Do you have the Plaga inside you?" Krauser stops to register the question, apparently smiling at how quickly Chris figured it out.

Something changes in Krauser's form, small and unnoticeable, until a punch sends Chris into the air, the strength behind it no longer human, "Seems I underestimated the BSAA's Alpha Agent…"

"You are just," Chris swipes the blood from his lips as he regains his footing, "another mutated asshole who is trying to play god…"

Krauser pulls back and releases a punch that Chris stops by grabbing his arm in a grasp, "Good… I've been wanting to work out some stress…"

First it was Wesker, mortal man turned god-apparent by a virus, now it's a soldier blinded by power granted from this parasite. Just the kind of target that can take Chris's rage, a rare target indeed. Each attack thrown at the infected brawler is stronger than the last, Chris channeling into a darker side of the Redfield name he has kept from Claire. Serving the military has been a legacy for the Redfield's, even before they were called the Redfields, as when one enters the field of battle, his work is not done until it is red with blood.

This rage is what Chris dug into after Rockfort, when he truly realized what Wesker has become, "You think yourself a God with all this power… Think it gives you the right to spit on those lower than you…"

Something breaks within Krauser's body, Chris's vision too red to notice what he broke as he continues the onslaught. He remembers every single person he has seen die, every death that night in Arklay, remembering the fear in little Rebecca's eyes as she tried to save Richard from that snake bite. All of this just adds to the power in his muscles, that is until Chris is sent to the ground from a single punch to the head by Krauser.

"I used to be just like you, Chris…" the mutated soldier slowly walks up to the injured BSAA agent and drops down to a squat, "Until I tasted the power… I wanted it, the power to make real change in the world… Once all of humanity has tasted the master's blessing, true change will be upon us…"

A gunshot rings out, the bullet tearing through the flesh of Krauser's left shoulder, "You can have this round…"

With a quick spin and a kick, both Jill and Leon are cleared from his path before the soldier disappears somewhere within the ship, "God damn it all…"

Jill attempts to help Chris to his feet, but her partner just screams in rage and throws the nearest item, "FUCKER!"

11

Krauser kicks open the door to Claire's chamber, resetting the broken right arm as he steps in, "Just ran into your brother…"

"Chris is here!?" that tone is what he's looking for.

A chuckle reverberates around the room as he drops the BSAA badge he swiped from his enemy during their fight, the object coated in a lot of blood, "He was…"

"Who else!? Who else was with him!?" Claire thrashes about as he watches the rage build up.

Krauser drops into the same chair he has occupied the past couple of days, smiling wide as he unsheathes his knife and cleans Chris's blood from under his nails, "Some bitch and a boy who looked like a lost puppy, don't really remember… It ended so quick and all…"

Before the redhead can say anything or do something drastic, he jumps up and grabs her by the neck, staring furiously into her eyes, "All hope of a rescue is dead… All hope of getting out of here alive is dead, unless you accept the gift the master is trying to give you."

"You have taken any reason from me to do anything, know that… My friends and family are dead, I have nothing to live for…" a tear builds up in her right eye, which he draws onto a fingertip before flicking it away.

He smiles wide and replies, "Good, you are ready… Bring in the next sample!"

Krauser relishes in the fear in her eyes as the case is wheeled in, "Las Plagas will provide you with a reason to live…"

11

"KRAUSER!" Chris punches through the head of an infected, ripping out what he can grasp of the parasite before it can mutate him.

Jill and Leon scramble to keep up with him, but are having issues as the bodies are piling up faster than they are disappearing, "Hold on, Chris!"

She watches in horror at the amount of rage pouring from his body as he rounds another corner before sliding down the set of stairs, "God damn it all… We need to calm him down before he loses himself, Leon…"

"Yeah," Leon stops at the first step and gazes back, "but how do you stop what he's feeling?"

A sigh leaves her lips as she quickly follows suit down the stairs, marking off in her mind that this is the third level they have cleared, shouldn't be much longer before they find Claire and Sherry. Even as she watches Chris kill relentlessly with the rage she's never seen before, she can't help but wonder if she should calm him down. No one else was there after Antarctica, seeing the dread in Chris's eyes as he worked out relentlessly, trying to become strong enough to stop what Wesker has become. Soon that dread turned to focus though and it wasn't until now that she realizes he tapped into that anger to become stronger.

"Chris! STOP!" there doesn't seem to be any real stopping him though as he kicks open a door and ducks around the wall as gunfire erupts from within.

The handgun is raised as Chris spins back into the doorway, firing a single round before continuing on, "This might not work, he's like a wild animal now…"

"What is it going to take to get him back to reality?" Leon tries his best to keep up with Chris, but after a while the two slam into his back.

Chris has kicked in another door, but he doesn't enter, nor start shooting, "Sherry?"

11

Blonde hair flips into the air as Sherry suddenly spins toward the noise as her door is kicked in, the male frame in the doorway being one she doesn't recognize, but it doesn't look like one of Krauser's men, "Sherry?"

"What the hell?" that voice is familiar!

Sherry jumps up at a voice she hasn't forgotten in the years she has been kept captive, "LEON!?"

The arms that wrap around her shoulders are warm and inviting, "It's been so damn long, kid… Anything we need to make them pay for besides kidnapping you?"

"Nothing too major, Leon. Where's Claire?" her eyes scan the other two people stepping in to the room, but doesn't recognize them.

"Oh," Leon spots the look in her eyes, "that's Jill, and the big man is Chris Redfield, Claire's brother."

Jill waves quickly before aiming her handgun at the doorway, "Pack her up quick, I hear them coming…"

Leon spins Sherry away from where her chains are bolted to the floor as Chris quickly drops a round into it, freeing her from the bonds Krauser put on her, "Okay, off we go…"

Sherry finds herself smiling as Leon guides her through the lower levels of the freighter. Being surrounded by people so close to Claire has her feeling even more hope than she has been able to feel in a long time. She stays close to Leon as Jill and Chris keep a constant eye on their pathway for potential threats. A fear creeps over her about Krauser, the girl wondering if they will even be able to stop this man and save Claire.

 _Of course they will, Sherry, we are the good guys…_ there are a few gunshots that bring her back to reality, her eyes focusing on Jill and Chris looting the bodies as they disintegrate.

"Another clip of nine millimeter!" the clip is tossed toward Jill who slides it into the pouch at her hip.

Granted that Claire was kidnapped while trying to rescue her, these three are very well armed and ready, "One more floor cleared, Chris."

"Right, we can't have too many more floors to sweep through before we find Claire…"

"There are only two more floors… And I doubt they have her on the last one as that is the engine floor…" Sherry keeps her voice low, but can't fight off the hopefulness that is filling her mind as she walks amongst gods.

It's not much longer before Sherry finds a small handgun hanging in front of her face, Jill's left hand holding it for her to take, "You might need this…"

11

"What the hell are you doing!? You are ready to accept the gift! Why fight it any longer!?" Krauser finds a long-lost rage fill his body as Claire destroys yet another sample.

A fire burns fierce in her eyes, "I was looking for a new way to get under your skin, you asshole… My parents are dead, yes… They've been dead for almost two decades… My friends are my family, and they will destroy you, your master, and everything you stand for… Shove as many of those parasites in my face as you want, I'll keep breaking them…"

"Shut off the lights, seal the room, and drain all the air…" Krauser quickly exits the room, not finding this game funny anymore.

Claire smiles as she is left alone, enjoying the return of the Redfield fighting spirit she so thought she lost, "Bye, beautiful…"

The door is slammed shut with a rage that makes her smile even more, but the fun is gone as she hears the vacuum pick up and finds it getting harder to breathe. This brings back another thought from her early days with Leon and Chris in the BSAA.

" _If you find it getting hard to breathe, never panic, never lose your cool, Claire. If you limit your breathing, you'll soon fall asleep, then pass out… If you can hold off passing out for a bit, once the air is returned to the room, you'll almost immediately wake up…"_

Calm breaths, slowed breathing, and lowered heartbeat, all of this helps with fighting off the incoming panic. As the room is finally drained of all oxygen, she swears she hears a commotion outside. Several gunshots, a loud and screaming voice she can't actually be hearing right now. Keep the breathing shallow, wait it out… Sounds are getting fainter now, but she knows this new sound is the lock on the door being opened.

As soon as her closing eyes see the door pop open, breath returns to her lungs and she finds herself gulping it down quickly, "Claire!?"

Tears stream down her face quickly as Leon, Chris, Jill, and Sherry enter the room, "I knew you guys would make it here in time! Get me down!"

She catches Leon diverting his eyes, then realizes she's still naked, "Um, Jill?"

As Chris cuts her down, Jill tosses her jacket at the redhead, smiling at how Leon is doing his best to not stare at the woman who holds his heart, "Leon, how about giving her your jacket to wear around her waist?"

Sherry steps in front of her friend and holds up a smattering of cloth, "They shredded your shirt and jacket, but it seems your jeans are still good to wear…"

As Claire steps toward Chris with her clothes on, he gives her a giant hug and chuckles, "I'm so glad you're safe, Claire… What all did that bastard do to you so I can repay him in kind?"

"Chris, I'm fine. I just want to sink this entire ship to the bottom of the lagoon we're in and just go home…" she rubs her arms, still trying to find all the feeling in them as Leon steps up to her.

He attempts to say something, but she just finds the strength to jump into his arms and plant her lips on his, the emotions rolling through her mind ever since she woke up on this freighter coming forth the moment she saw him. They have been through too much together to be anything other than together. They have saved each other so many times physically, Claire and Leon now need to save each other mentally, finding their bond stronger than anything else on the planet.

Chris, Jill, and Sherry step out of the room as the two continue their embrace, Claire finally breaking it with a single sob of, "I knew you'd be here…"

"I will always be here for you… But only if you'll let me, Claire… We are stronger together now than we ever were apart before Umbrella crushed our innocence…" she smiles and rests her head on his shoulder, their moment only interrupted by her brother's reminder that they are on a tight schedule.

"Let's finish this, Redfield," he raises the spare handgun, which she takes eagerly.

She checks the weapon to make sure it's fully loaded before slapping the clip back into the gun, "On your mark, Kennedy…"

 **END**


	14. Thirteen: Fractured Memories

Resident Evil: The Recurring Nightmare of Hope

Chapter Thirteen: Fractured Memories

"They said all of this was just part of a larger plan, that trading the G-Virus in my veins for the technology they did was to spread the word of…" Sherry struggles to remember the name of the leader of these people.

"Saddler… The Word of Saddler, he called this parasite…" Claire shudders at the mere thought of the name, the word itself leaving an unsettling taste in her mouth.

"Another face for me to crush with my bare hands," it would be adorable how he still demands to protect his sister, if Claire didn't know Chris could actually crush a skull with his hands…

Leon and Jill say nothing as the group makes their way to the upper deck of the freighter, something akin to hope covering them as they reach ever closer to their goal and an escape. None of them have mentioned how they were getting off the freighter, which worries Claire a little, but she finds solace in the fact that all of them have faced much worse and came out the better for it.

Chris is the first to emerge from the depths of the freighter onto the main deck, his machine gun already sweeping side to side for targets, "All clear…"

Jill climbs out next, a smirk on her face, "Try not to sound _too_ disappointed, Chris."

Leon helps Claire and Sherry up before he is the last to exit, all of them standing on an empty deck, not a single infected soul in sight. The group makes their way toward the ladder that brought the older three up in the first place, but a series of well-placed sniper rifle shots stops them in their tracks.

" _I wouldn't attempt to make another step toward that railing, my pets…_ " the voice is Krauser's, but those are not words he would use.

"So it's true, you are just Saddler's puppet!" Claire screams back at the voice before pulling Chris aside as a red dot appears at the base of his skull.

The shot rings out and misses, Chris thanking his sister before springing to his feet to track down the location. There are too many perches to shoot from, with too many catwalks to get to them all. He growls in anger as he motions for Leon and Jill to start moving toward two of the more likely spots as he urges Claire and Sherry to follow him up to the bridge of the ship.

" _Thinking about splitting up already? You did so well sticking together, Chris!_ " this shot digs into the glass next to Chris's face, sending another bolt of rage through his body as Claire and Sherry scramble to take cover.

This isn't a good spot to be in! Krauser has the high ground and the element of surprise as he quickly moves from perch to perch, taking pot-shots at all of them as they struggle to get a bead on his position. Chris Redfield does not like feeling like a rat in a maze and this is exactly what they are here. He is thankful for one thing though: at least there isn't a mob of infected goons rushing them as Krauser takes his shots in the middle of the chaos.

He finds a bit of comfort in that his life doesn't feel too much like an action-packed video game, but his thoughts are scrambled as another shot almost finds its intended target, "God damn it, Krauser! Stop hiding like a snake in the grass and just STRIKE ALREADY!"

" _Krauser has given himself to the Word of Saddler and Saddler demands he play with you before you die!_ " that's it, Chris has had his full of fanatical people thinking they are god just because they have a bit of power.

First it was Spencer in that infernal mansion, then it was Wesker in Antarctica, now it's this Spanish douchebag with a bug that controls people. Chris catches the reflection of the laser sight and follows it to one of the perches he told his team to go after. Leon is quickly closing in, which means this will be over soon enough and that the two women at his side will be safe.

" _Ah, you chose your partners wisely, Chris… Seems stealth is no longer needed…_ " there is a single gunshot before he spots Leon hanging from the perch by a single hand, Krauser standing over him, ready to stomp the ex-policeman into nothingness.

The left foot is raised, but a gunshot from Jill sends their target stumbling a few steps away as Leon swings his body toward a closer landing spot, " _Fine! Let's conclude this face-to-face!_ "

Chris is awestruck as Krauser drops from the catwalk, falling what must be a few hundred feet to the deck of the ship. There is an almost deafening explosion as wood, dust, and metal fill the air from the not-so-graceful landing. As the cloud dissipates, he stares at the standing form of their nemesis, his beret the only thing out of place, but only slightly. Chris pushes Claire and Sherry toward the bridge as he slowly descends the stairs, ready to take this freak of nature on for the last time.

"I've fought your type before, you know… Super-powered psychos with a God-complex… I wasn't prepared then, but that fight made me ready for this, and I find myself relishing the fight," Chris lets the machine gun rest at his side as he rolls his shoulders and cracks his knuckles before bringing the weapon up to aim before smirking, "Don't disappoint me!"

As Krauser takes off into a sprint, Chris for just a second imagines the form as Wesker, which fills him with a rage he has long-desired to put to rest. His trigger finger applies pressure and the small burst of lead finds its mark in the core of Krauser's chest. The rounds don't stop him, much like Chris expected, but the power of the punch takes him completely by surprise.

There are other gunshots that fill the air as Chris lands hard against a metal container, his world spinning for a second before he rises to his feet, ready for round two, "Don't stop now, Krauser, this was just the warm-up…"

"Such an American way to look at things… Unable to see the unstoppable force coming right for you until it's already run you over. I look forward to stomping out the fire of the West forever…" now that's just plain rude in Chris's book.

Chris swaps the machine gun for his pistol and a knife, hoping a closer fight will go more in his favor. The infected soldier steps up and prepares to throw a right hook, but Chris ducks under it and fires a quick grouping into the exposed flesh under the arm, trying to pierce through to the heart. No luck, the rounds hitting skin that seems to almost be steel-like in toughness. There is a backhand Chris didn't see coming, but he quickly brings the knife up and smiles as the arm is impaled on the blade, stopping the attack.

"Such childlike tactics," Krauser begins to raise the arm up over his head, taking the knife right out of Chris's hands as he chooses to not go with it.

The blade is ripped from the flesh before being casually tossed over the side of the freighter, " _Chris!_ "

There is an unusual sound as Claire's voice echoes from the sound system, but the shadow growing to his right urges him to leap backward and roll to safety. Krauser takes another step toward his target, but is swept up by the swinging container sent down by Claire. Chris looks up at his sister and gives her a thumbs up before moving toward the container as it comes to rest at the edge of the deck. The wrenching of metal stops Chris in his tracks as Jill and Leon finally join him, Krauser apparently not happy with the attack.

"Las Plagas cannot be stopped by anything of this world…" the side of the container is split open as something that resembles Krauser steps from within the dark depths, "Let me be the first to introduce you to the new world order…"

"How many cheesy lines do these guys have?" Leon drops a round into the monster that was once Krauser.

Chris watches as Krauser brings up the mutated left arm and uses the blade-like appendage to soak up the round before he continues walking forward, "The lines must come with the God-Complex…"

Jill takes aim and fires another round, which Krauser again blocks, but this time Leon capitalizes on the move and drops down into a crouch and fires a round under the arm, the bullet digging into the right knee, causing the monster to stagger a bit. Chris picks up on this and the three of them take turns distracting him while another shoots at his knees. Eventually Krauser drops to his knees and drops his guard, allowing Chris and Leon to run up and capitalize.

"This is for the torture you put Sherry through!" Leon drives his knife hard into the sternum of Krauser as Chris pulls his right arm back as far as he can, the gun held in his hand to increase the power of the punch.

"This is for Ashley Graham!" he drops the fist against Krauser's jaw, breaking it upon impact.

Both men take a step back and ready their guns right in his face, "And these are for CLAIRE!"

Both weapons are drained into the mass of flesh that is Krauser's head, the two men not stopping until the guns click with empty magazines and Krauser's body drops to the wooden deck. Chris drops his handgun before falling to his knees himself, a sense of accomplishment and the lightened load becoming too much to bear.

Claire runs up to them with Sherry in tow as they all look over Krauser's quickly dissolving body, "We still have more to handle, it doesn't end with Krauser…"

"We know," Jill drops down next to Chris and wraps her arms around him as Leon steps next to Claire, "but this is a victory we need…"

11

It only took another hour to completely eradicate the Plagas-infected soldiers from the freighter and get the radio working. Director Reed was not as welcoming as they expected him to be with regards to Claire and Sherry's rescue, but his threat of jail was a surprising turn of events. The BSAA wouldn't actually arrest them, would they? This question and others plague the group of warriors as they await the helicopter being sent to retrieve them.

Claire sits in the corner of the bridge, keeping her back covered with Sherry sitting in front of her, the two talking, reminiscing about the events in Raccoon City, "Think they'll be okay?"

Chris slowly looks up at Jill, frowning as he throws a quick glance at his sister, "I hope so, they both are as strong as the rest of us, but we don't know what they have completely gone through…"

"True, hopefully she opens up before it starts to fester…" she runs a hand through Chris's short hair as he returns to cleaning his handgun.

Leon drops his booted feet to the floor as he spins around, "Hey, Claire, you said the leader's name is Saddler, right?"

"Mmhmm," she nods before walking toward him, "not real sure on the first name. Why do you ask?"

Leon looks down at the computer he's been messing with since they killed Krauser and points to a single name, "Osmund Saddler?"

"Possibly? Sherry, any input?" the blonde shrugs, seems this Saddler is as mysterious as he appears powerful.

"What does it matter if he is named, Osmund?" Chris is aggravated at the conversation heading nowhere.

"Well, it seems our boss was receiving visits and payments from a Slade Drumonds. Turn the letters around and you get…." they all nod at the link, but Jill has a single question.

She drops a hand on Chris's head and asks, "Where did you get Osmund as his first name?"

"Well," he smirks, "we are on a boat called Osmund's Wish? Also, his name is listed all over these files on Krauser's laptop."

Chris finally stands up at this information, his hands turning the laptop toward his own eyes as he begins to work on finding more links, "It seems that a lot of the dates of these payments coincide with a lot of the G-Virus deals Krauser handled… If Cranston was being paid by Los Illuminados, who else were they paying?"

"You know," Jill leans back in the captain's chair and smirks, "I love how much work we actually get done when we aren't fighting for our lives…"

11

Claire sits back as the rest of the group roots through the files looking for more important names to add to their growing list of targets to take down. Random noises from the group remind her of things she experienced while under their captivity, some of them worse than others. She starts shaking as the memories start hitting her harder and faster, her world now replaced with visions of the events she experienced.

As the memories start to take over her mind, she remembers a name, "Ramon Salazar… I remember the name Ramon Salazar…"

Leon is quickly at her side as he realizes that she is experiencing post-traumatic stress, "Look that name up, Jill… Hey, Claire, it's okay, you're with us, with me… Calm down…"

"Leon?" her eyes stop sweeping back and forth and focus on his face, the smile that appears on her face reassuring Leon that she is okay now.

She pays no attention to anything else going on behind him, Claire's mind focused like a laser on the man in front of her. Leon has been there through it all, he was there besides her through Raccoon City, he was the one who located her brother when she needed help in Rockfort and Antarctica, and he was here to rescue her this time. What makes him different though, is he never rubbed it in her face, like he had to save her. Leon knows she can handle herself when the time calls for it, but he also knows that like all of them, even a Redfield needs help once in a while. Maybe that is why she's fallen for him, he was there when she dealt with Steve's death, she was there when he finally gave up on Ada, the two of them just always being together…

It's the one thing in their lives that truly makes sense, "Us…"

"Always," it's like he's reading her mind as he sits next to her and brings her head down against his chest, one hand holding one of hers while the other hand slowly runs up and down her arm.

These movements are calming to the redheaded Redfield, who soon falls asleep for the first time in what feels like forever…

"WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US!?" Claire's eyes fly open at the sound of her brother screaming as an explosion shakes the freighter.

11

Chris turns from his sister as she falls asleep, happy that she's finally resting, but still coming to terms with who she is falling asleep next to, "Stop it, Chris."

"What?" he types away on the laptop as Jill smirks.

She pokes a spot on his forehead, "You get this very particular wrinkle right there when you are trying to approve of Claire's new attraction. It will happen with or without your approval… Might as well make it easier on all of us and stop fighting it."

"That's my little sister, Jill…" he sighs and takes a long drink of the water bottle sitting between them, "I will always want to protect her, it's what I've always done…"

His love smiles and nods toward the man his sister is in the arms of, "Someone else can take that burden now… Her life has found a bit more meaning, just like ours did when we finally accepted what we are."

There is truth to her words, like there always is when she gets in one of her preachy moods, but that is what he loves most about her. Jill is the brains to his brawn, the Colby-jack cheese to his bacon cheeseburger. Great, now Chris is hungry, but he forces that aside as the computer beeps at him.

"Holy shit, Jill… Is that…?" the picture is connected to the name Ramon Salazar, but they know it by a different name.

She gazes at the monitor before replying, "That's the younger brother of Deputy Prime Minister Rosa Anton!"

"Seems Ramon Salazar and Los Illuminados are more connected to our world than we ever thought…." Leon comments lightly from his position on the floor.

No one else comments on this revelation as the patter of helicopter blades starts to echo around the freighter, signaling that the BSAA has finally arrived to pick them up, or so they thought, "Everyone get down…"

"What?" Jill turns to face Chris, whose expression silences any further argument.

Chris picks up the machine gun from the console and chambers a round as he turns toward his team, "EVERYONE DOWN!"

Glass shatters around them as Jill quickly pushes Sherry down the stairs into the armor-plated bowels of the freighter as Chris returns fire of his own. He glances at Leon who is trying to wake Claire up, but to no avail.

"They sent a fucking Apache to take us out, Leon! Get her out of here, NOW!" Chris ducks down as the attack helicopter makes another pass at them.

Leon picks Claire up and starts to make his way toward the staircase, but a round from the attacking force digs into the meat of his lower leg, "Mother fucker!"

He drops quickly to the ground, making sure to not injure Claire as Chris screams in rage and continues trading useless fire with the chopper outside, "God damn it all! They never wanted us back! Fuckers are going to have one hell of a fight on their hands if they want to take me down!"

There is a pressure on his leg, the pressure connected to Leon, who is reaching for the machine gun, "You need to get out of here and protect Claire, Chris. I can hold them off."

"No, I'm not leaving anyone behind!" he drops down to avoid another strafing pass, Leon taking this moment to really lock gazes with the elder Redfield.

"Claire means the world to us both! What good is it going to do her if we ALL die here!?" Leon takes the machine gun from Chris and pushes him toward the redhead.

Chris picks Claire up and starts to carry her toward the stairwell, but takes a look back at Leon, who slowly clambers into the captain's chair and takes aim at his target, "Thanks, Leon."

There is a quick wave from the blonde man as he fires a few bursts from the weapon, "WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US!"

Chris feels his sister come to at this point, but an explosion sends them both flying down the stairs, fierce heat burning at his back as he lands, "God damn it all!"

"What's going on? Where is everyone?" he can't answer her questions, not now, not when this ship is going to start sinking at any moment with them all trapped inside.

"I'm sorry, Claire," Chris kicks open the nearest door and rushes in, hoping to escape the flames and the life lost upstairs.

 **END**


End file.
